Should the primary navigation link be duplicated in the secondary navigation?

Question

Consider this basic homepage.

If I click "About us", the page loads, I see content and also a secondary level navigation appears.

My question is whether I should have a page called "About us" as the first clickable-link in the secondary navigation or not.

I understand that if the secondary navigation appeared when I hovered over the first level, then it wouldn't be needed because I would be forced to pick a second level link, but in this situation when the secondary navigation appears only after the page loads, I'm not so sure what is best practice.

Answer 1

No. But you should make a visual correlation between the "about us" in first navigation and second navigation. This could be done by

• Adding visual separator to the first navigation items by using different colors, vertical lines and etc.

• removing the borders just beneath the "About us" item. In which the "About us" item surface connect to second navigation surface.

• Using same color or near colors in either "About us" item and second navigation.

Answer 2

No, I can't see any benefit to the user in duplicating the 'About Us' link, particularly if the second level navigation appears directly below the top level navigation. You would be misrepresenting the hierarchy which might cause confusion.

Answer 3

How much information do you have to fill within the "[Who/What/Where/Why] we are" pages? Unless it's enough to warrant independent pages, I would argue they should be condensed to the same page. Otherwise, that's 4 clicks for the user.

Consider the Following Solution

When the menu item About Us is clicked, it takes you to the start of the page, with all four sections laid out. The user can read all the information start to finish, if desired.

When the sub-menu item What We are is clicked, it jumps you to that section of the about us page (example). It starts the user at the relevant section, but still keeps the rest of the information to one page.

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Another question to consider: how often do you find yourself reading "about us" pages? My above answer can be applied to other menu aspects of your site, but I wouldn't fret too much about the design of the about page(s).

Answer 4

It depends. If you don't have too much content you can make a single page with anchors menu. It should be ok because you would have an "about us page" with chapters.

Having a page with a different landing label is confusing. It does not add any value. It should be better to have a sub-menu on hover/click.

Answer 5

I am assuming few things:

1. You have enough content to make a separate page for all 4 secondary links.

2. Services would also have secondary links.

I would treat 2 ( Services & About us) of them as a static label. They can be only hovered not clicked and add a little signifier ( down facing arrow ) to make it clear that there is more content to be explored.