If this is the case, plot your links on a matrix and prioritize the ones that users use the most often and the ones that make business sense. While it’s good to look at what the users will interact with the most often, you may have a business rule or requirement that means you may have to push some pages more than others. Once you have decided on your top links, test it with users and see if they agree. As a rule of thumb, avoid including more than 7–9 links in your top navigation. There’s no exact rule as to where the line should be drawn, but remember that your top navigation should only include the links your users will use the most often. Once you have ordered them, draw a line separating what should be in the primary navigation and what should be in the footer. Order your links by which ones are used the most often. Sort links according to suspected popularity Here are a few techniques that you can try to determine what should be in your top navigation. There are many different schools of thought about how to choose what goes into a menu. You should avoid jargon and keep your labels short and simple. Your links’ labels should be as straightforward as possible. All other essential links should sit at the bottom of the page in a footer. Only links that you expect users to interact with often should be in the primary navigation. Only put links that will be used often in the top menu In a desktop design, you should be able to see all the essential pages, whereas on mobile, you should be able to collapse all the pages under a hamburger menu. When designing primary navigation for websites, you should always consider how it scales down for mobile or scales up for desktop. While not always adhered to, it’s best practice to include a dropdown arrow if an item in a navigation bar will reveal a dropdown menu. You can either reduce the number of pages or add a secondary navigation menu with the less important pages at the top.Īdd a dropdown arrow to show that there is a dropdown menu Sometimes there’s not enough space in the primary navigation. Consider adding a secondary navigation menu Overall, you want to make navigating as simple as possible for the user. There are a few best practices when it comes to menus and menu bars. Add a minus (-) directly before and after the text you want to be disabled. Using formatting text in Balsamiq, you can choose what should be disabled. If an item isn’t available to the user, it should be grayed out. Some items in a menu may not be available for the user to click on because of business rules or because they have to click/select something else first. If the user is on a page that isn’t one of the pages in the primary navigation, then none of the top links should show as active. If one of the options in the menu bar is a dropdown menu, you can show that it’s selected and have the dropdown menu open. If you’re on a page that’s in the top navigation, this should be indicated in the menu bar. These visual cues let the user know what they can do and what they have done. Menus and menu bars have different appearances depending on the user’s last interaction. These menus should contain ways that the user can interact with the current page they shouldn’t be used to navigate too far away. You can create an arrow in menus by using the right chevron (>) after the text.Īn options or kebab icon is a button that launches an options menu. If that is the case, you can show that it is currently active by using a check mark. Some settings in the dropdown menus are actually toggles that allow you to switch something on or off. “Insert image”), and much more.Īpplication menus that show current settings Unlike website navigation, application menus don’t take you to different pages instead, they surface options for you to interact with. However, there’s an important distinction between the 2: tabs navigate between similar panes, whereas mobile app navigation switches between different pages. This pattern is often confused with tabs. On larger websites, there may be instances where multiple links will get stored under one main link, creating a dropdown menu.Īpp navigation on mobile is more like browser navigation, as it allows you to switch between pages. These links allow users to move through different pages or screens. The top-level navigation of a website is called a menu or a navigation bar (navbar). There are a few different types of menus.
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