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Design

Simon Keating
Simon Keating
1,987 Points
Posted by Simon Keating
Simon Keating
1,987 Points

Design Choices - Drop Down Menus

I am currently leading a website development for a high school and torn on a design choice around drop down menus. Of course, now they are not only drop-down lists but almost mini-pages with potentially an image, menu items, and a breakout message in the same screen.

Do they speed access to information? Do people have general guidelines they stick to?
Do you have a max number of menu items?

1 Answer

John Locke
John Locke
15,479 Points
John Locke
John Locke
15,479 Points

Hi Simon:

Part of planning the site is figuring out the information architecture. Generally, you want any page to be three clicks or less from the home page. Figuring out the most important actions to take or pages to visit will help you decide what the top-level navigation should be. Any other relevant pages can be sorted into drop downs, but it's not necessary to list every single page in a top level drop down.

Types of secondary navigation are numerous. Many times, secondary links can go into a sidebar or footer. Treehouse has just four main top level navigation buttons, but they lead to pages where information is further sorted, as on the LIbrary page.

There are different ways to solve navigation problems. First inventory all of the pages you have, decide which are most vital, and which are secondary. Study other sites that are similar to yours, and se how they solve organizing information. Whatever you decide, keep similar conventions throughout the site, so users know what to expect.