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Collapsible Menus or Full Navigation Bar
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website design santa rosa

A collapsible website menu looks similar to a smartphone menu icon which you need to mouse over, click or press to open the navigation menu and see all of the links to various sub pages. Collapsible menus became trendy in 2015 and we feel that they will continue to gain popularity in 2016. Saying this, it does not mean this is the right option for every website. Actually for most of our clients they are not a good option.

Website designers use them when the visual is the most important aspect of a website. By having a collapsible menu, it gives the designer more “screen real estate” to display cool graphics or images. If your industry is highly creative you may consider it. Their placement differs but they are often found on the right top side of the webpage.

In some cases they are placed on the right or left side of the page or the middle of the page (see samples below). We highly recommend to not place a collapsible menu at the bottom of a page. Many of your visitors will be confused and may not even realized it is there.

CollapsibleMenusForWebsites

collapsible website menus
Best way to use a collapsible menu on a website

 

When you design your website, you have to focus most importantly on your target audience. Who is your best and most profitable client? Is this person tech savvy? What personality type is this target audience? Are they keeping up with trends or are they more cookie cutter?

Having a collapsible menu on your site can be a risk if your visitors are so confused that they do not understand they have to click on the icon and that there is more than one epage on your site. If you feel you have to indicate with text like “Click here to see our menu”, this is a sign that this is not the right type of menu for your business even if you personally love it.

Remember the website is for your clients not for you.

Some sites have a collapsible menu on their homepage only and not their standard pages. Again make sure your visitors will know right away that they have to mouse over or click the icon in order to see the rest of the pages’ links. If they do not, they may be left confused and thinking your site is incomplete or broken.

If you are unsure which option is best for your unique situation, give our team a call at 707-794-9999 (Pacific Standard Time – California).

 



website collapsible menu
 

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