Mega Navigation

[Martha Weitz]

Toaccount for these two user intentions, don't make response time for a mega menu be too fast: the mouse should remain stationary for 0.5 seconds before you display anything that's hover-dependent, such as a mega menu or a tooltip. Violating this guideline will make the screen flicker insufferably when users move the mouse. Only after 0.5 seconds of resting the pointer on a navbar item can you assume that a user actually wants to see its associated dropdown.

One exception to item 3: The very best implementations can sense when a user is moving the pointer from the navbar item to a destination within the dropdown. When the pointer is on such a path, the dropdown should remain visible. This supplementary guideline addresses the diagonal problem, which happens when the path temporarily takes the pointer outside the active area. The dropdown shouldn't disappear when the user is on the way to point to something within it.

In the above example, the user first pointed to the Sport & Leisure navbar item and now wants to select Haberdashery. Moving the pointer between these two spots makes it cross the Baby & Child navbar item. Many users will move so fast that the pointer will exit the active area for less than 0.5 seconds. However, older or leisurely users might move the mouse so slowly that the dropdown would disappear while they're still aiming for a menu item. Very annoying.

The standard usability guideline to "keep it simple" also applies to mega menus. Just because you can put anything into them doesn't mean that you should. Simplicity applies to interaction semantics at least as much as it applies to the presentation layer. Fewer options mean less to scan, less to understand, and less to get wrong.

In particular, avoid GUI widgets and other interface elements that involve more advanced interaction than a simple click. Mega menus are a fleeting screen presence and shouldn't replace dialog boxes, which are the natural home for more complex interactions and can support them better. Among other benefits, dialog boxes have a standard dismissal method (the OK/Cancel buttons), stay on the screen until they're dismissed, and can be moved around if users need to see something that the box obscures.

Even if coded correctly, mega menus can cause problems for low-vision users who use screen magnifiers to enlarge tiny portions of the screen. (The same issue impacts smartphone and tablet users.) With a small screen or a screen magnifier, only a small portion of the mega menu might be visible.

For example, in the JohnLewis.com screenshot above, the screen magnifier will show the first groups but not the Gift Food & Alcohol topic or those right of this groups. The missing drop shadow, which appears on the full menu's right edge, is too subtle a signal to help most users, particularly those with poor vision. Users may assume that the visible content is all the content that is available, and, thus, the site could lose orders if it had many low-vision customers (a common situation for sites targeting older users). Having a strong visual signal for menu borders is one way to alleviate this problem.

If you're a rich company and/or especially concerned with accessibility, you should implement both the simple and advanced features. Most sites, however, will probably have to make do with the simple approach.

Mega menus may improve the navigability of your site. (Of course, it's always best to test.) By helping users find more, they'll help you sell more (or meet other business goals, such as attracting donations or disseminating helpful information for nonprofit or government sites).

Mega menus enable site navigation to be displayed at-a-glance on communication pages and hub sites. This increases the value of a site by engaging your audience in discovering more content than ever before.

Designs can include categories, images, embedded content, iconography and other visual clues, to help a user easily find what they are looking for. Without a mega menu, navigating even the most popular websites would prove frustrating and fruitless.

Much like Citadelle Gin, instead of simply listing out their products in a column or table layout, they have added high resolution product photographs. The photographs actively draw the eye and point the user in a specific direction, while also bolstering the overall branding of the site.

Cleverly, the menu also includes a category of problems that their products solve like split ends and frizz, guiding users based on their needs. It is the platonic ideal of e-commerce mega menu design.

Its layout has plenty of clean white space, is clearly organized by product type, an overall is extremely easy scan. When a user clicks a top level product, the menu displays delicious looking product photos within that category.

However, I do have a hard time imagining anyone else but Starbucks, or a brand with as much recognition as they have, using this exact design. I criticized Wild Souls for hiding some of their products and not making it clear that you have to scroll to see more.

A website mega menu (or megamenu) is a menu that unfolds when website visitors hover over, click, or tap on a high-level navigation bar option. These menus accommodate more links than a typical dropdown, flyout, or accordion menu and include elements such as images, descriptions, icons, and newsletter sign-up fields.

When designing a mega menu, keep in mind that interactive elements can present accessibility issues. Test its functionality with assistive technologies like screen readers and text magnifiers. If these tools struggle with your menu, creating a dedicated, accessible webpage that lists all the links is a simple solution.

Brix Templates offers five different cloneable mega menus tailored for diverse design needs. The most comprehensive options (v1 and v4) integrate text and large icons across three (v4) or four (v1) columns, providing visual appeal and ensuring users quickly identify and understand underlying categories or topics. The more streamlined options (v3 and v5) present single-column dropdowns with and without icons, reducing visual clutter for a cleaner, more direct navigational experience.

A final middle-sized version (v2, shown above) has two columns with space for descriptions, providing more detail than the streamlined options but without the comprehensive expanse of the multi-column version, bridging the gap between brevity and detail. These mega menu layouts cater to sites with distinct page hierarchy levels, addressing their unique structural demands.

Our menu also features a dedicated gray sidebar linking to Webflow University, our popular tutorial resource for Webflow designers, offering immediate access to learning resources. Lastly, the bottom right corner serves as an emergency resource area, guiding users who might face challenges with the software.

Whatever your menu design needs, Webflow has you covered. For more menu ideas or to get a head start on your design, browse our range of templates featuring mega menus or explore other creative menu ideas.

While visiting an eCommerce website, you may have seen a lot of categories in the menu bar. After hovering over a specific category, you will see a large drop-down menu with more categories. This is called the mega menu.

InVision is a popular website that principally provides a project-handling solution that centralizes the entire workflow system. It has an organized mega menu that links many essential internal pages. Under the Product menu item, you see the menu has many internal pages under three different categories: Product Overview, Freehand, and For Teams.

The product menu item also has an option to display the product update where you find the update of the InVision products. Ultimately, this is an ideal mega menu example that helps users to navigate the website easily.

Dribbble is a popular marketplace where designers can showcase their work. It has a beautiful mega menu design that improves the user experience. Under a single menu item like Marketplace, you see an icon with an internal page link and a short description of the page.

weDevs is one of the popular WordPress products-based companies that built some great products including the Dokan Multivendor Marketplace plugin. It comes with a very clean and simple mega menu. You will notice that under the Products menu item, there are multiple products showcased with a product logo and a brief tagline.

Under the Resouces main menu item, the mega menu shows two-dimensional menu content using two categories, LEARN and CONNECT. Both of these categories have many internal pages that are systematically listed. However, it also has a FEATURED READS option to showcase the feature blog posts of the website.

Food Network is a restaurant website that has a mega menu to display the restaurant food menu. Under the Recipes menu item, it has a mega menu that shares the RECIPE OF THE DAY and TRENDING RECIPES.

Their mega menu presentation is iconic. Each recipe has an image that attracts customers. However, it also has an option to display the other Recipes List and a button to SEE ALL Recipes.

Visme is another cloud-based graphic designer platform, alternative to Canva. Here too, you will find countless design options as well as a large number of ready-made templates by which you can complete your design in no time with very little skill.

Visme has an eye-soothing and feature-rich mega menu covering lots of options. It includes numerous categories and subcategories for navigating you to all the features, functionalities, and pages your site has. Its mega menu also works perfectly on mobile devices and smaller screen sizes.

Fiverr is a renowned platform for employers to outsource jobs. Millions of freelancers upload their gigs there from which employers find their desired freelancers and complete projects. Freelancers can now sell a wide variety of services on Fiverr, although there were only a few at the beginning.

3a8082e126