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Are there any studies or data that show sticky navigation elements are effective at producing click through, for example .... http://gawker.com/

I"m thinking about putting one in, but wanted some references before running my own split test.

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Hi Wok, can you add more details about what you are referring to as "stick navigation"? – Nadine Schaeffer Sep 19 '11 at 21:47
position fixed elements, i made a typo, i meant sticky navigation. – Wok Sep 20 '11 at 1:55
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I don't have any data to answer your question. I can however give you my opionion: sticky navigation stinks. It is not natural, it feels very annoying: I cycle my scroll wheel, the screen scrolls, except this annoying sticky things that says: You know what, I am just gonna ignore what you just did there and claim part of your screen and force you to give attention to me! Oh I so hate that. – Bart Gijssens Sep 20 '11 at 13:26
Yeah, i could relate to that, but i've just notice that its becoming more persistent, especially now that older browsers are dying. Facebook now has a sticky top element, that follows you as you scroll. So i just wonder if the trend is warranted. – Wok Sep 22 '11 at 16:49

1 Answer

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Fixed navigation works great for webapps, not so much for websites.

I see websites like areas where content is king, where users go to read/watch/hear information. The purpose of a website to be informative and is some cases entertaining. When I read, I hate to have a top navigation which only shows me that I can go back to the homepage, or click a new category to read/see articles or pages from that section.

On the other hand, webapps are application that give me, the user, more functionality. Take gmail for example:my gmail account.
I really like the fact that I don't have to scroll up in order to delete some messages. That would be a waste of time, and since I already am familiar with the menubar, I have no need for contextual menus or other UI overload to get what I want done fast.

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