Notifications Now Live in the Side Panel

Until now a bell opened a narrow popup in the corner: a few lines of text, hard to tell what was clickable, and easy to dismiss by accident. Notifications now open in the side panel, the same place your filters live. On the panel’s edge, under the F block, hangs a block marked N, with the number of unread notifications under it (2 NEW). Click it and the filters slide out as the feed slides in; click F and you are back on your filters, exactly as you left them. On a phone, N sits next to the Mercala logo.

While the feed is open the filters underneath are switched off, so nothing you click or tab to can change your search by mistake. Nothing is lost either: your filters are still there the moment you close the feed.

Every card has the same shape. A small label says what kind it is and how old, Product update · 2 h or Your listing · yesterday. Then a title, one or two lines of detail, and, when there is somewhere to go, a red line at the bottom that names the destination: Read the article, View listing, Edit listing. If a card has no red line, there is nothing to open; it is just telling you something.

Unread cards carry a red dot and a bold title, and the chip at the top counts them. When you have read everything, the dots go away.

• Press N to open or close the feed from anywhere on the dashboard, the way F opens the filters.
• Click anywhere on a card that has a red line and it opens the destination. You do not have to aim for the link.
• Archive sits on every card, on a phone too. It removes the card from your feed for good; use it to keep the list short. Opening a card is enough to mark it read.
• Mark all as read sits in the header whenever something is unread. One click clears the count on the N block.
• On a phone the feed opens as the same drawer the filters use, full height, so long feeds scroll comfortably.

If you prefer the keyboard, the feed follows the same rules as the filter panel: Tab moves, Enter opens, Escape steps back.

• N opens the feed and puts you on its close button.
• Tab moves down the cards. After the last card it comes back to the top.
• Enter or Space on a card steps into it. Tab then switches between the card’s link and its Archive button, and Enter follows whichever you are on.
• Escape steps back out to the card. Press it again and the feed closes.

The feed uses the same quiet design as the filter panel and our email alerts: paper background, fine lines, one red, a serif title. That red is reserved for things that need you, an unread card, a link you can follow, a filter still narrowing your search. Everything else stays out of the way. The copy is plain words, no icons, so it reads the same to everyone.

If something does not behave the way you expect, reply to any of our emails or write to support@mercala.org.