Hi all. I am interested in canvasing opinion and feedback on flyout menus.
Our organisation includes many online newspaper websites which is the domain I focus on here. Recently, we conducted a competive gap analysis against benchmark competitors looking at different areas of user experience, content strategy and obviously information architecture and navigation. The research focused on 16 high profile online newspaper sites, predominantly in the US, UK and Australia. With regard to navigation, some of the highlights from the analysis included: 100% have horizontal based navigation systems 54% employ a "Hot Topics" or "Quick links" on homepage 45% use flyout menu's on their Jobs, Homes, Cars, Classifieds links The last point about flyouts is interesting as more and more sites are implementing this to improve linking relevancy, brand association & gain seo payback. For an example please look at www.denverpost.com, www.boston.com OR www.seattletimes.com (mouse over the links for Jobs, Autos etc).. you get the idea. There are a few aging posts on the web on this subject and no consensus. Do people think such flyouts are a no-go area OR that users mental models now expect this sort of functionality and once implemented gracefully and carefully these can work and are a plus for user experience? Thanks and looking forward to your feedback. Best regards Ruairi
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