Menu navigation exists to help us find content and it should be simple and intuitive.
When looking at a website, our expectation is to navigate with ease and have a great experience. Part of my role as a senior web designer is to ensure that the user knows where they are, where they have been and where they are going! Designing a solid navigation system is without question one of the most important aspects of designing a website. Hopefully the below will shed some light on the fundamentals of navigation.
Main Top Navigation
- For the main top-level navigation it is best practice to use 1 or 2 short words at most for each main page.
- Use no more than 7 menu categories for the top level navigation.
- It is always a good idea to begin with “About” sharing what your company is about.
- Let’s end your top navigation with “Contact Us”. We really want people to be able to find you or ask you questions.
Sub-Navigation
- This a pages under the top navigation to let people know more about you.
- Best to create a “Site Map” of the pages you want to share. If you need help, FirstLink would like to help you out!
- Does every page need to go under the sub-navigation? No, some can just be links from one page to another. It’s always good to add links. Get the most important pages under your navigation, this is key to a good website.
Optional Layouts
- Hamburger Menu or Normal Navigation
- Color of font
- Background Color
- Menu Alignment
- Menu Font Size
- Menu Hover Color
- Social Media follows with the “Hamburger Menu” also in a mobile responsive view.
Hamburger Menu Layout
. 
