Hey Justin We recently did a project where we experimented with a number of navigational utilities I'm pretty happy with the end result.
The site is visible at www.iih.org. There are four main navigational widgets through out the site; the top nav with 1 level of drop down, the breadcrumbs, the "also in this section" nav and the site map. The top nav: =-=-=-=-=-=-=- This nav provides users with quick access to the top level sections and provides users with javascript and mouse input to browse one level deeper. If javascript & css are not present these second level items appear at the bottom of the page. I have three main problems with these drop downs: 1/ Unlike menu systems in the OS, these can not be navigated via a keyboard. 2/ Relying on mouseOver for multi level menus makes them hard to use. If your mouse slips off you have to start from the beginning. I really think this is an underrated point - users have difficulty holding their hand still and concentrating on learning a menu system at the time! 3/ Obvious usability issue for those without javascript. The breadcrumbs =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- These a fairly simple, they give the user a sense of where they are within the site & allow them to easily move back up higher in the site structure. The "also in this section nav" =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- (This nav is not on the homepage, but is available on almost every other page on the right hand side) This nav is contextual in that it shows you everything from your current location down. It again uses javascript to create a folder structure style hierarchy. Initially the current level is displayed, but by clicking on the folder icons you can expand it to show sub sections. This nav addresses all three issues with the normal drop down model; 1/ You can use a keyboard to move through it 2/ Its onClick based so mousing our accidentally doesn't take you back to the start 3/ In the absence of js you get the fully expanded navigation There are a couple of little css bugs in this nav, but they are just cosmetic. The other beautiful thing about this nav is that it requires no inline javascript, its just a bunch of nested <a>, <ul> and <li> tags. The site map =-=-=-=-=-=-=- The site map is available from the footer on *every* page. Any user should be able to navigate the entire site even if they have no javascript without having to resort to the site map. Its just there as a safety blanket :) Credit where its due - most of the navigation concepts on the site came from the fantastic CUE resources (http://www.qld.gov.au/web/cue/overview/) - the best thing to come out of Queensland since Sir Joh. > I'm confident I can provide simple, smart navigation without > them, but first I need to find some solid proof that they're > a bad idea :) My main complaint with drop downs are outlined above. I'm not going to say - don't use them they are evil, but in light of the alternatives I just think they are the weaker option. Cheers Mark ------------------ Mark Stanton Technical Director Gruden Pty Ltd Tel: 9956 6388 Mob: 0410 458 201 Fax: 9956 8433 http://www.gruden.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 *****************************************************
