For questions about the mechanisms you can use to help people find their way around your application or web site.
52
votes
5answers
11k views
Why did Microsoft make Windows 8 hard to Power Off?
I’ve been using Windows 8 for a couple of weeks and am certain the new operating system will work great on tablet (i.e. Microsoft Surface). On PC some say the best tile is the desktop tile, where you ...
42
votes
10answers
3k views
Home button vs Logo link?
Is a "home" button on the navigation required if there is a link to the homepage using the company's logo?
Increasingly I have noticed more and more websites using the logo as a link to return to ...
42
votes
7answers
4k views
What's the best way to view a deep hierarchy?
I've been pondering the best way to show a deep hierarchy for a desktop application I'm working on. Here are some alternative designs I'm considering...
Mac OSX Finder:
If you understand what ...
29
votes
12answers
1k views
Do website visitors return to the homepage once they're inside the site?
I have been (unsuccessfully) looking for some research that supports / rejects (or even discusses) the hypothesis that:
Once a user has entered a website a significant percentage of them do not ...
26
votes
3answers
4k views
Do users understand the browser back button?
You hear a lot about not breaking the back button on websites, but can you assume that most users know and use the back button?
Is it redundant to add a JavaScript or HTML back button/link on a page?
...
26
votes
8answers
948 views
Is it a good idea to have a large footer containing many links?
In recent years, it's become quite a common design pattern to have a large footer on every page, containing a 'mini sitemap'.
For example:
This has supposed SEO benefits, but would also seem to ...
22
votes
8answers
1k views
Can I safely remove search functionality?
One of our clients has a content-rich website with about 300 pages of content in total. We did our utmost best to provide a very clear main navigation, but also provide a search function in the ...
22
votes
7answers
1k views
Would Breadcrumbs be effective if they incorporate Dropdowns?
I'm currently thinking about adding a quite comprehensive section to a website: the section I'm talking about starts at level 3 of the overall website and itself has another four structural levels. ...
21
votes
6answers
2k views
What is “eyebrow navigation”?
Just came across this term in a document I'm reading through, referring to "eyebrow links" in the context of navigation. Presumably it's a form of navigation at the top of the page, but what ...
17
votes
4answers
1k views
How to explain to director that a multilevel dropdown menu isn't a good idea
My director and designer want to make a big drop-down menu on our site. Multilevel menu :
| MENU 1 | MENU 2 | MENU 3 | MENU 4 |
...
17
votes
2answers
793 views
Senior Usability and Navigation
Does anyone have any current resources for senior usability? I'm specifically researching navigation: tabs and accordions. The Jacob Nielsen site has a report that's over a decade old. I'm looking for ...
16
votes
8answers
629 views
Click on Logo no longer brings user to the homepage of a website, good?
The latest Google webpage redesign brings us a feature ( or a bug?): Clicking on the logo no longer brings user to the homepage of the website. This behavior is consistent across different Google ...
15
votes
5answers
1k views
Is it ever okay to have multiple rows of tabs?
We're working on a UI at work and people want to have the number of tabs in a certain area be flexible width so that in certain situations depending on the title length and the number of tabs, the tab ...
15
votes
5answers
1k views
Usability research on sticky headers?
Sticky (or fixed) headers are not so uncommon nowadays, and for a large website that relies heavily on catalog and search functionality it may be a good choice to aid the user.
As I am currently ...
15
votes
9answers
2k views
Should I add a 'Home' Button to the navigation?
I know that it is common behavior to have the logo of a web page be a link to the home page, but should I also have a 'home' link in the navigation bar for it as well?
15
votes
4answers
616 views
What reasons are there for “go to bottom/top” links no longer being used much? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Do people use back to top links?
Some websites have links like Go To Bottom or Go To Top.
It seems like this technique has fallen out of style. Are there good reasons ...
14
votes
4answers
956 views
How to best indicate navigation menu on mobile
What's the best way to indicate the navigation menu on mobile?
I see this three-bar icon being used a lot but do users really understand what it means?
Wouldn't a button simply saying "Navigation" ...
14
votes
4answers
1k views
When is a right-handed navigation sidebar appropriate?
When is a right-handed sidebar for navigation a good choice? If possible, I would like some examples where it has been used, such as this sidebar from Google's official blog.
13
votes
7answers
751 views
Are hover menus in headers easy to use?
Do users find it easy to use headers/menus like the one displayed below?
13
votes
4answers
663 views
Can a visual progress bar be used as a navigational element?
We're having a bit of a debate here among teammates as to what would be a better UX solution, so I was hoping you guys could help me settle this.
We have a linear flow through a data-collection ...
13
votes
2answers
527 views
What is the name for the horizontal tabs expanding / contracting kind of navigation?
Can somebody tell me if there is a name for this kind of tab navigation implementation?
13
votes
5answers
4k views
What is the navigation concept Bootstrap uses called?
The Bootstrap documentation site uses a very interesting navigation concept.
They have a per-page navigation bar that sticks on top of the page once you scroll down and highlights the current area on ...
12
votes
8answers
1k views
Which side of a web page should a side menu go on?
Many websites have side menus and I seem some have the side menu on the right and some on the left.
Which side is better?
12
votes
10answers
447 views
External links: Whether & how to distinguishing them from internal links, and to open them
How do other IAs/UXD's treat external links & what are the perceived pros/cons of different options. Specifically looking for recommendations on:
whether & how to visually distinguish ...
12
votes
8answers
775 views
Should Printer-Friendly button open a new browser window ?
Reading Common web app usability gotchas? I felt guilty when I read that using a target = "_blank" is a bad thing.
I have developed a small web application that format Stack Exchange questions in a ...
12
votes
4answers
435 views
Is search a necessary navigation element?
I often have arguments about navigation at work with programmers who think search is a required part of any navigation. I think this is because programmers are advanced computer users who use search a ...
12
votes
5answers
298 views
Is it better to offer 2-3 links to access the same page or one single link?
I'm currently working on an events website. On the events landing page, there is a list of upcoming events. Here is how each event is presented:
The banner, title and 'more details' button lead to ...
12
votes
6answers
1k views
Breadcrumbs: ok to place at the top of a page?
Should breadcrumbs ever be placed at the very top-left of a page?
Breadcrumbs seem to always be located either directly below the nav menu or above the page content. An article from 1stWebDesigner ...
12
votes
3answers
720 views
Drawer Navigation vs. Drop Down Menus
Are there any studies on drawer type navigation such as: http://www.ibm.com/us/en/ where the navigation pushes down content, compared to traditional drop down menus where navigation covers up content? ...
11
votes
4answers
449 views
Is there a better solution than breadcrumbs to cascading categories on mobile?
I am working on a mobile application (Android ICS based) where I need to show a lot of products on screen. Now the products are categorized in several categories which are on X level, where X is ...
11
votes
8answers
1k views
Best practice for translating context menu options to touch devices?
I'm building a photo site that must allow users to manage thousands of photos via paged thumbnails on a big desktop. I also want to offer a touch interface that is both usable and delightful on the ...
11
votes
4answers
150 views
Should you optimize mobile experiences based on individual handedness?
In abbood's question "How to implement a stack exchange style voting for mobile?" he answers his own question with the following mock-up:
My immediate thought was that the up-vote control was on ...
10
votes
11answers
966 views
Website redesign how do you know how to organize the navigation structure?
I know this question is extremely broad but I would like to know the steps a UX'er would take in order to understand what content there is on a site and then how to organize this content in terms of ...
10
votes
4answers
698 views
What's the reason behind fixed (position) navbars?
It's becoming almost customary for responsive designs to have fixed-position navbars, where the navbar is fixed to the top (usually, or even bottom sometimes) of the viewport of the browser.
Don't ...
10
votes
3answers
526 views
Best practice for Navigation usability? [closed]
I'm currently working on a social network type system, and was wondering about the best practice for navigation. Would it be better to use Icons or Text? I was thinking a mixture, icons for some ...
10
votes
2answers
228 views
Caption below or above image for navigation purposes?
It was already discussed here that for layout purposes, where images and video appear on a web page, ordinary captions are probably best placed below the graphic — largely due to convention.
I want ...
10
votes
4answers
175 views
What order to choose for subnavigation links in mega-dropdowns?
We have changed our navigation and switched to a mega-dropdown-menus. Now we had some discussion how to arrange/sort the subcategories inside the dropdown layer.
One opinion is that the user is ...
10
votes
5answers
1k views
Tabbed browsing. Why close the application on closing the last tab?
This happens in IE, Chrome and Firefox. When you close the last 'tab' when you're navigating, the application closes. I'm aware that Chrome (at least) has a really fast restart after that, but still, ...
10
votes
4answers
654 views
Use of Website Category Landing Pages
OK, here's the situation: A reasonably simple website with a primary navigation menu including drop-down list of sublevels on hover. Each navigation level may have 3 - 6 sublevels below it, none more ...
10
votes
2answers
422 views
Icon-only navigation bar for a desktop application?
I am working on a groupware application running as a desktop application (not in the browser). I wanted to keep the interface really simple and minimalistic so my users will not get distracted by a ...
10
votes
3answers
699 views
Best practices for scrolling and navigation on touch interfaces: horizontal vs vertical
It's well known that on traditional (mouse/keyboard) interfaces horizontal scrolling goes against user expectations, however in touch devices the matter is not so clear.
Are there any best practices, ...
10
votes
6answers
486 views
Button bar: criteria and position
Me and my team are (re)thinking some UI details of our main application.
It's a "traditional" desktop application for the Windows platform. It's a business targeted application, and our customers are ...
10
votes
4answers
442 views
Mixing Full Page-Width Navbar With A 960px Body
Is there ever a use case for mixing a full-width top navigation bar (meaning the navigation bar content is also full-width) with a contained body (around 960px)? What are the benefits or drawbacks to ...
10
votes
3answers
426 views
Why do most image gallery popups have Previous and Next arrows so far apart?
This is one of those things that has persisted on the web without getting fixed for so long that I'm starting to wonder if there's something wrong with me for having a beef with this design pattern.
...
10
votes
6answers
680 views
Responsive Menu that has a LOT of menu items
We have a responsive menu that on mobile just shows the top level menu items (x8), but on desktop also shows hover drop drop downs with service areas within the parent menu item.
The problem is we ...
10
votes
2answers
264 views
If a sticky window panel is larger than the screen size, how should I display it?
I have one panel at the right where users can choose search options that is a sticky panel.
However, on different screen sizes etc., if the height of this panel is higher than the screen height not ...
10
votes
2answers
197 views
Please recommend Improvments to the SE Menu Structure
Over at Programmers Meta we are haveing a discussion about the SE Menu Structure. Someone recommend we ask the Pro's over here for recommendations.
So, What could\Should be done to Improve the SE ...
9
votes
5answers
198 views
Using a back panel image as navigation
I wanted to get some opinions and feedback on using an image of a back panel for navigation. In our current UI we have a setup of a appliance. The appliance has a number of ports and some need to be ...
9
votes
3answers
538 views
Android: Back Button Only vs. Extra Navigation
General UX question for Android:
Assume a simple view (activity or fragment) hierarchy, like so: A --> B. The transition from A to B is added to Android's back stack.
On screen B, is it best to ...
9
votes
5answers
828 views
What is the standard on always showing/not-showing second level navigation?
Our website has a global horizontal main menu that drops down to show all second-level navigation items.
We have requirements to build our website no wider than 1000px (according to web stats of ...
