[thelist] cascading menus bad for navigation?
Oliver Lineham
oliver at lineham.co.nz
Wed Aug 2 19:14:21 CDT 2000
At 19:09 31/07/00 -0400, you wrote:
>hey, i love them hiermenus, but apparently they aren't all that
>user-friendly...
>
> http://www.shorewalker.com/design/design116.html
hey, interesting article rudy.
i probably agree that deeply nested hierarchical menus are a bad
thing. but have to totally disagree with the writer's conclusions about
the right-click (context) menu and drop-down menu.
i use right-click all the time, more often than my back button in
fact. usually it's to open a link in a new window, other times it's
probably to save the target of a link. i find it quick and intuitive, i
don't even read the menu anymore because i know where things are.
right-click isn't really an option for web design though. drop-down menus are.
i like drop-down (or fly-out) menus. a menu bar - whether vertical or
horizontal - takes up very little screen real estate. yet it packs in a
wealth of well-ordered information. without the drop-down menu, you'd have
to just take a punt on one of the section titles (like most sites), or use
the sitemap.
it's just when menus are cascaded that they confuse users, IMO. anyone can
handle "About > Contact". But "About > Contact > Branch offices > Europe"
is where people get fed up.
the author of the article seems to be advocating the traditional navigation
system: a list of top-level sections, and a list of subsections of your
current section. a drop-down menu is identical, except you can also (if
you wish) see the subsections of the other sections. nothing is lost.
the only reason i don't use drop-downs (or fly-outs) is
compatibility. they require DHTML, and I simply don't trust the browsers
(present or future) or my DHTML skills.
</ol>
____________________________________________________
v i b e m e d i a http://www.vibe.co.nz/
po box 10-492 wellington, new zealand
phone +64 21 210-7845 oliver at lineham.co.nz
More information about the thelist
mailing list