We just rarely can predict behavior accurately. With hover menus, we try to deduce and act on a particular intent by tracking mouse behavior, yet our customers might have very different objectives and very different limitations when accessing a page.Ĭustomer’s behavior is usually unpredictable, even although our analytics might tell a slightly different story with data points gathered and normalized over a longer period of time. The main reason why mega-dropdowns can be cumbersome to use is because of a mismatch of intentions and expectations. ( Large preview) Why Are Mega-Dropdowns Hover Menus Frustrating? A common component for large retail stores. Sometimes the submenu appears unexpectedly, and sometimes it suddenly disappears, and sometimes it stays on the screen for a while, although the mouse pointer is already in a very different part of the page, or on another page altogether. And for decades, a common user’s complaint about this pattern has been the absolute lack of certainty and control about how and when the sub-navigation opens and closes. Usually it includes a mixed bag of links, buttons, thumbnails and sometimes nested dropdowns and overlays on its own.įor decades, a common behavior for this kind of navigation is to open the menu on mouse hover. A mega-dropdown is essentially a large overlay that appears on a user’s action. That’s exactly why mega-dropdowns have become somewhat an institution on the web - albeit mostly for complex and large projects. No wonder that a common way to deal with this complexity is to expose customers to a large amount of navigation quickly. Think of large eCommerce retailers and large corporate sites, catering to many audiences and having plenty of entry points. And with such a complex multi-level navigation, showing the breadth of options requires quite a bit of space. When a website houses thousands of pages, often combined with micro-websites and hundreds of subsections, eventually the navigation will go deep and broad. Let’s explore things to keep in mind when designing and building a mega-dropdown, alternatives to hover menus and fine details for designing a better UX.Ĭomplex websites often rely on complex navigation. It does not store any personal data.Do we need mega-dropdown hover menus in 2021? Probably not. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. ![]() The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". ![]() These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly.
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