New Mobile Experience

We've just rolled out a major update to how 3DSEARCH looks and feels on your phone. If you've visited us on mobile recently, you'll notice something new at the bottom of your screen: a proper app-style navigation bar that replaces the old hamburger menu. Here's what changed and why.

The Problem with the Hamburger Menu

The classic hamburger menu — those three horizontal lines in the top corner — has been a mobile web staple for years. But let's be honest: it hides everything behind an extra tap. Important features like filtering, the community feed, and your profile were buried in a sidebar that required reaching to the top of the screen and then scanning through a list. On a site where people search through nearly 5 million 3D models, every extra tap is friction.

Studies consistently show that bottom navigation outperforms hamburger menus for discoverability and engagement. The most-used apps on your phone — Instagram, YouTube, Spotify — all use bottom tabs for a reason. Your thumb is already down there.

What's New

Bottom Navigation Bar

The new bottom bar gives you instant access to the five most important areas of 3DSEARCH:

Home — Jump back to the main page with one tap. No scrolling to the top, no navigating through menus.

Filter — Opens the filter sidebar where you can narrow results by source (Printables, Thingiverse, MakerWorld, and more), sort by downloads, likes, or newest, and browse categories. This is the same powerful filter panel as before — just one thumb-tap away instead of hidden behind a hamburger icon.

Feed — Direct access to the Community Feed where you can share makes, ask questions, and see what others are printing.

Profile — Your account at a glance. Wishlist, collections, notifications, and settings — all one tap away. If you're not logged in, this takes you straight to the sign-in page.

More — A clean bottom sheet slides up with quick links to the Blog, Slicer, Calculator, Image Search, Submit a Model, Contact, plus theme switching and language selection.

Cleaner Header

With navigation handled by the bottom bar, we've simplified the mobile header to just two elements: the 3DSEARCH logo and a search bar. That's it. No more cramped row of tiny icons competing for space. The search field now uses a pill-shaped design that's easier to tap and feels more modern. The header stays in a single line, giving you more screen real estate for what matters — the models.

Glassmorphism Design

The bottom navigation uses a translucent glass effect with backdrop blur, matching the design language of modern mobile apps. It adapts to both light and dark themes automatically. In dark mode, it has a subtle shadow that gives it depth without being distracting. The active tab shows an orange indicator line at the top and a slightly bolder icon — small details that make the interface feel responsive and polished.

What Didn't Change

A few important things to note:

Desktop is untouched. If you browse 3DSEARCH on a laptop or desktop, everything looks exactly the same as before. The bottom navigation only appears on screens under 640px wide.

All features are still there. We didn't remove anything — we just reorganized where things live on mobile. Theme switching and language selection moved to the "More" sheet. Logout moved there too. The sidebar with all its filters is still the same — it just opens from the Filter tab instead of a hamburger icon.

The app works the same. If you've installed 3DSEARCH as a PWA or use the Android app from the Play Store, the experience is now consistent. The same bottom navigation appears whether you're in the app or the mobile browser.

Technical Details

For the curious: the bottom navigation is pure CSS and vanilla JavaScript — no frameworks, no extra dependencies. The glassmorphism effect uses backdrop-filter: blur(20px) with a semi-transparent background. Safe area insets are respected for devices with notches or gesture bars. The "More" sheet uses CSS transforms for a smooth slide-up animation. Total added CSS: about 150 lines. Total added JavaScript: about 40 lines. Zero impact on page load performance.

Try It Out

Open 3dsearch.net on your phone right now and take the new navigation for a spin. Search for a model, tap Filter to narrow by source, check out the Feed, and hit More to switch themes or change the language — all without ever leaving the bottom of your screen.

We'd love to hear what you think. Found a bug or have a suggestion? Hit us up through the contact form or drop a post in the community feed.

Happy printing!
— The 3DSEARCH Team