CSS Menu are good for having text links to all pages in a web site.
But I have found an oddity with some users of CSS menus. After testing with a web site, not one clicked on the top links. There all said they thought it was not a link to a page, it was there just to make the drop down work - and you click something below.
The top most row are links that go to actual pages (apart from support)
But how many or you would assume the top most row are only headings - and dive into the drop down menu to click and view pages. When in fact the top row are links to actual pages - and not just an active link to make the drop down work.
It would be good to have poll here to see what is the most obvious intuitive function for users. In case I’m concerned about nothing.
What would you think?
Top row links to an actual page?
or Top row does not link to an actual page -but just acts as the focus to make a drop down.
Sometime around 4/1/09 (at 07:41 -0500) WebWorker said:
Top row links to an actual page?
Why not? Don’t assume that someone will try clicking it, but why not
make it link to somewhere logical if they do?
For example, go to http://www.ma-publishing.com/ and look at the
navigation there. The top-level link called “The Course” links to the
first item also shown in the submenu. The top-level link “Pathways”
links to a page that describes a little bit about each of the pages
linked to in the submenu; it goes to a new page rather than one of
the pages that the ‘lower-level’ links offer.
I do the same - most times. I have also, in a couple of instances,
made the menu bar link and the top submenu ‘introduction’ link go to
the same page (belt &braces method).
However if all your main menu headings have a sub menu, you don’t have
to link them at all and I have seen this in a few sites where you can
only click on submenus to get further into the site. However, if some
links (e.g. Home) are only in the main menu, the first method should
be more intuitive.
Colin
On 4 Jan 2009, at 23:43, DeltaDave wrote:
I totally agree with David Wilson here and that is how I structure
it. The top link is to a section and the dropdowns to subsections
within.
Thanks or the feedback - I would also assume the top would be a link to a page regardless. It seems other web designers would do also.
I was very surprised in my own local poll of captive “non web designers” users in the office, that they “all” assumed that any top link with a drop down was not a link. But any top link without a drop down was a link.
It just shows - you need user testing never just assume anything.
Google would prefer that you not have two separate links to the same thing on the same page.
The way I structure these sorts of things is to have the top-level link take you to an “index page” of the menu, with all of the menu options listed and explained with some “teaser” text. That way if someone clicks on the top option, they come to a a page which is a long-form of the submenu, elaborating on the options and giving someone who doesn’t know precisely what they’re looking for a sense of space and choices.
Sometime around 5/1/09 (at 09:01 -0500) WebWorker said:
It just shows - you need user testing never just assume anything.
Absolutely.
I expect many people assume that menu ‘header’ items aren’t active
items in web pages in the same way that they aren’t in our Macintosh
and Windows software menus.
Yep this was the direction I was heading in., Keeping the top menu a link (which is the same name as the folder structure) Hopefully Google will like this.
BTW, how to you get a Google Listing that shows the structure of a site like this?
That way if someone clicks on the top option, they come to a a page which is a long-form of the submenu, elaborating on the options and giving someone who doesn’t know precisely what they’re looking for a sense of space and choices.