# What would be the best approach to split the combined notifications & user menu into two?

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-would-be-the-best-approach-to-split-the-combined-notifications-user-menu-into-two/241856>\
**Category:** Development\
**Created:** [October 13, 2022, 6:39pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-would-be-the-best-approach-to-split-the-combined-notifications-user-menu-into-two/241856 "2022-10-13T18:39:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![manuel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/manuel/32/468169_2.png) [@manuel](https://meta.discourse.org/u/manuel)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2022, 6:39pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-would-be-the-best-approach-to-split-the-combined-notifications-user-menu-into-two/241856/1 "2022-10-13T18:39:23Z")

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I’d like to split the new combined user & notifications menu into two distinct menus for these reasons:

- I generally find the new menu a bit overwhelming for casual users and want to be able to offer a simpler alternative
- I want to keep using and making interfaces for Discourse that only offer a sidebar with reduced options. Or no sidebar at all. Then I need a place for items that have been on the hamburger menu so far, like about, faq, groups..

So the idea for the header would be to have two icons, one for notifications, on for user:

 ![header-icons](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/7/a/2/7a2bb50f0059f459e5ce85ca15add9809a899849.png)

With notification updates on the new icon:

 ![header-icons-notification](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/9/d/6/9d6298ccbb92b1c59cb29219c9248840046de4a3.png)

The notification menu expanded:

 ![notifications-menu](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/a/a/a/aaad2bf227a2f1cbe8ac3602a3562a3f69281a20.png)

And the user menu expanded, with additional tabs for staff and site navigation:

 ![user-menu](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/6/9/d/69d584ddf68d5e8ffa53f068d4d646d9a7511039.png)

I guess I can cobble this together in a theme component. But I wonder what would be the approach that will stay best aligned with future changes in core?

Thanks for any feedback on this from more experienced devs! 🙏 💛

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