Version 4.4 includes major changes to the header of your site. The new navigation styles improve accessibility, readability, and the overall appearance of your site header.
Navigation Styles
The most significant change in this release is an overhaul of the navigation on your site, both on mobile and desktop. Here’s a list of what’s changed:
- New styles for better readability, accessibility, and appearance.
- Fix issue with submenus getting cut off on the edge of the screen. The anchor position for submenus will now be based on the position of its parent. If the parent is on the right half of the screen, for example, submenus will grow from the right (taking up the available space on the left).
- Resources menu will no longer be hidden on mobile devices.
- Search modal shows search suggestions.
- Add styling for current menu item to improve clarity.
- Dark mode will remember your preference across any “*.wisc.edu” site for 30 days and will no longer flash light colors for a brief second before loading.
New Customizer Options
In addition to the built-in changes, we’ve added some new customizer settings to enhance your site.
- Disable Search – Removes the search button from the header.
- Disable Dark Mode – Recommended only if you are having issues with the dark mode styles on your site.
- Menu Call to Action – Styles the last item in your menu as a “call to action” button that stands out against the others, if your site has a primary action users should take.
- Header Alert – Allows you to add an alert message to the top of your site. Will appear on every page of your site until the user dismisses it. Once dismissed, it will be hidden from that user’s device until you change the message.
- Google Site Verification Tag – Allows you to more easily validate and verify your site in the Google Search Console.
- Invert Logo on Dark Backgrounds – Intended for custom logos, this feature will apply a filter to fill your logo with white when placed against a dark background, such as dark mode or a fixed, inverted header.
Accessibility Improvements
- Search popup opens in the proper dialog element with the search input automatically in focus.
- Nav menu animations respect a user’s reduce-motion preference.
- Behind-the-scenes accessibility improvements for better screen-reader compatibility.
- Improved tab order gives keyboard users quick access to the search button.
SEO Improvements
This update includes some basic SEO (search engine optimization) improvements and sets the foundation for more customizable SEO settings in the future.
- Meta description can now be customized by editing your post or page excerpt.
- Automatically adds various meta tags to improve SEO.
Other Changes
- Navigation block style improvements and submenus now work properly on mobile.
- Fixes bug where the theme would force the favicon, preventing non-UW sites from adding a custom one. (Sites affiliated with the University should not override this setting).
- Updated default favicon to use the recommended UW logo.
- Performance improvements.