thanks how would you rate http://www.ourbrisbane.com/ which is using a mix of drop down menu and apparent second level navigation.
It could be seen as a solution to make everyone happy!? f On 8/4/05, John Allsopp <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Frederic, > > > I want to convince people not to have drop down on some of our > > sites at work... > > > > I am looking for some good reasons not to have them... > > > > We have some on our current site and it looks like (from the web > > stats) that people are actually using them a lot > > Thanks for the opportunity for letting me sound off on one of my > favourite subject - Russ is now running for the corner (a quick > aside, Russ and I just gave a series of workshops round Australia, > and this came up once or twice, My firm views were noted. I have lots > of firm views.). > > OK, let's start with the basic UI principles. A menu is a set of > verbs, for doing actions. Navigation menus are a set of nouns for > choosing content. So its akin to using a radio button in place of a > checkbox they are designed for two different uses. > > Secondly - while menus on the OSs are designed so that traversing > diagonally to a submenu will not close that submenu, JS submenus (and > CSS ones too) almost invariably close unless you enter directly from > the entry in the main menu relevant to them - this is why they are > difficult for most users and essentially impossible for users without > really good fine motor skills to access. > > So, > > 1. they break the UI guidelines on all platforms that have been in > pace for over two decades for menus > 2. they have serious usability issues > 3. they have serious accessiiblity issues > > A further Usability issue is that by using them, we tend to hide > contextual information about where we are in a site - we tend to know > which major section we are in, but not the subsection within that > section. In non trivial sites, this a major issue. > > Why do people use them then? > > I think their popularity is a symptom of style over substance, which > drives a lot of web design - The image replacement techniques, misuse > of flash (rarely is it used well, and even when it is used well, it > tends to be used for everything (text and still graphics as well as > interactive stuff) rather than jsut for what it does well). > > Just my not so humble appearance. > > John Allsopp > > style master :: css editor :: http://westciv.com/style_master > support forum :: http://support.westciv.com > blog :: dog or higher :: http://blogs.westciv.com/dog_or_higher > > Web Essentials web development conference http://we05.com > > > ****************************************************** > The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ > > See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm > for some hints on posting to the list & getting help > ****************************************************** > > -- Web: http://anna.loic.free.fr Windows Messenger: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (work) [EMAIL PROTECTED] (home) <a href="callto://fredericfery>Skype</a> ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
