The web page contains materials of different types. It contains images, texts, and media with the particular arrangement. There are some specific zones in the web page called menus. They indicate the sections of content of the website with links to each section. The menus seem to be important and determining when it comes to the layout and the ergonomics. Well, as every component of the web page, menus can be improved in order to serve more than indicators and more than guides to somewhere else than the current location, they participate in the success of the website by rising the assigned score by the search engine algorithms when they browse the web pages.
The anatomy of the menu:
The menu is a dedicated zone of the website that displays the main pages of the website. It is called the menu bar. These are made of the title of the page anchored to a live link that nests within the website. Usually, the menu items are organized by pertinence. However, most of the navigation menus begin by the “Home” section and ends by the “contact us” section. The menus are usually written in HTML “list” tags styled with appropriate CSS scripts, but it is not a rule. The position and the behavior of the menu allow differentiating several types of menus.
Types of menus:
There are two main types of menus: the horizontal menu and the vertical menu. The horizontal menu is the menu with the elements arranged from left to right. The vertical menu is the one with the elements arranged according to an up-down orientation. Each type has two main positions the vertical type can be on the left or on the right; the horizontal menu is mainly placed on top or down.
Improving the menus for better user experience:
The use of menus is critical for the easiness of navigation. The behavior of the menu is also an important factor that may enhance the overall impact of the website. The following lines are a selection of some practices that will improve the menu usability on the website.
The horizontal menu is better:
The horizontal menu offers more options than the vertical one. Obviously, adding effects to the horizontal menu is easier and requires fewer efforts. The responsiveness feature is, also, achieved at it is the highest level when applied on a horizontal menu. Extending the menu with a sub-menu is also performed better when working with a horizontal menu.
Tabbed menu:
Using tab to display menu has become a revolutionary practice and indeed a suited ergonomics feature. The sub-menu elements are arranged in a tab which offers a readable and a clear presentation of the menu items.
Highlighting background:
The highlighting background, when hovered by the mouse pointer, is an attractive behavior that can be added to the drop-down style.
Animated objects:
Animating the texts or implementing some animated illustrations next to the texts is also a good way to track the attention. When the mouse hovers the text, the object performs an animated sequence which can be simple as an arrow rotation or more complex as a wavy movement of the text.
Conclusion:
The menu is the navigation guide that helps the users familiarize with the website content. The more the menu is attractive, the fast they can get along with the content. Also, the UX principles recommend the easiness of finding the desired items. With the captivating menu, users are likely to be captivated too. To achieve this, you may engage our freelance web designer Singapore.