Ask Eric: Questions & Answers

July 11, 2011 – submitted by Ellen Krueger of Appleton, WI

Question: There have been quite a few sites redesigned with mega menus. How do you feel about the usability of these. i.e. www.usaa.com

Eric's response: We have really solid data that the hierarchical menu is a good design. It is preferred over left and horizontal navigation. It is also better from a performance viewpoint. So we can be pretty sure that the presentation of the mega menu will work well (given that you actually HAVE that much stuff to show). We have also been using a SINGLE dropdown menu (see the "Site Map / Go to" in the black bar at the top of our site). That is also a good alternative to the dropdown menu.