Probably a rather poorly chosen timing, but I’ve wanted to bring this up for a long time.
And after just getting a bit frustrated once again, I decided to share it now.
First of all, please don’t get me wrong.
The Nav block is a piece of art and tops anything a builder has ever attempted.
But from a Cwicly perspective, it’s too limiting compared to other blocks.
Maybe I don’t really understand the concept, but the main strength is also its main weakness.
In desktop mode, assuming the modal is not already used from there, everything is just fine. But as soon as it comes to the modal aspect, I think the problems start.
The modal does not allow any other elements than navigation related ones. This means that only elements that make sense / are allowed within the <nav> tag can be considered.
For example, a button from the header is not included in the modal.
That at least is how this block was developed and how it’s intended to be.
You could now use all available means to make it somehow possible. However, this would go so far into a modification that it would no longer make sense.
For example, you could give the nav block a <header> tag, wrap the Nav Items block in a Div block, give it a <nav> tag and assign the <ul> tag to the Nav Items block itself in order to achieve a correct HTML structure.
Now you can place any blocks on the level of the nav item block, such as an image (logo) and a button (for CTA purposes, for example), to create a header (practically transform it to a header builder, instead of a nav builder).
Now everything is in its place in the desktop view, and as soon as the modal comes into play, all blocks are also included in it. But now the fiddling starts, because the necessary Nav block wrapping Div block comes along like a foreign body, which you have to edit separately and is not part of the nav block options.
However, the impossibility is reached when submenus come into play.
The problem here is that the entire container slides when you click on a menu item to go to the next (submenu) level.
This also means that all other elements such as buttons, images, social icons, etc. are also affected.
In my perception, the logic is not quite thought through to the end, which makes the nav block, as powerful as it is, quite inflexible.
Probably everything could still be achieved with some CSS resets and overrides, but “working against” a different concept makes no sense.
There are some more factors, like the Nav icon not being available in the Styling tab for granular design, etc. But that’s not the point here. It’s about the concept and its missed opportunity.
Thanks for reading.