web site menu

[John Hesketh]

Hi
I have posted the below on the internet forum but as most appear to be viewing this one, I thought i would try my hand here. Apologies if this is not correct ettiquette
I currently use mrsite to develop my site http://www.solaceduvet.com
Most websites appear to have their menus on the left hand side, as I currently have, however switching to a top menu i.e horizontal frees up a lot of space for editorial and images. Any advice as to what you feel is best suited would be much appreciated

Thanks

John

 

[fisicx]

Whichever best suits your site is fine. I tend to use top navigation if there are only a few links and shift to the left if there isn't enough room on top. On my own site I have the navigation on the right because that suits my content and visitor profile.

There is no right and wrong, your content and site structure will dictate the best type of navigation system.

 

[Deleted member 53208]

I agree with fisicx, our mortgage networks site also has the menu bar at the top, and I do think some people expect to see this. The other alternative to this is that you can always use links from other parts of the home page to individual pages or sections, again as in our website.

So no wrong or right really, as long as it's obvious to anyone viewing the page, and the most important pages are the most prominent.

 

[Silent Web Solutions]

With the amount of links you have it is better to leave them down the left as they may look all squashed if displayed at the top.

 

[julian_shaw]

We have a couple of sites, one with mainly top navigation, one with a left hand side menu. Both seem to work.

If you have only a few pages, with most being accessed via one click from the home page, as with John's duvet site, then a left menu probably works best.

If a site has lots of pages, broken down into various sections, I reckon they work best (ie it's easiest for the visitor to follow) with a top navigation for the main section headings and dynamic sub-menus, with perhaps a left nav for the pages within a particular section.

Does all that make sense? Anyway, back to the Blankies, yes, I think the navigation is about right.

 

[J-Wholesale]

I'm a fan of top navigation, so long as there are no drop down menus involved. Dynamic menus really, really irritate me. For an example, take a look at the navigation on Slate. Moving the mouse anywhere near the navigation links at the top causes enormous drop down menus to appear that cover huge portions of the screen and make reading articles very difficult.

If you're like me, and your hand is always resting on the mouse, then sites like this are a pain to read, and the 'designers' should be put up against a wall and shot.

 

[John Hesketh]

Thanks for the feedback...think I will be sticking with the left for now

John

 

[fisicx]

I think you would be far better using a top menu system. You are wasting an awful lot of space on the page putting it down the left.

You also need to reconsider the actual content pages. One of them is just a bunch of images with no means to 'take a closer look' or even buy the one I like.

You homepage should provide the means to peruse and buy the products. The marketing blurb should support the invitation to buy.

Also consider the lack of contact details. Apart from the fact that you are breaking the law, your anonymity can create mistrust.

PS, top item on your shopping cart is out of stock...

 

[chewy]

The thing to think about is the page fold, the most important info in a page should in theory start above the page fold, if you move the menu to the top you will be pushing content further down the page, have a look at your web stats for "screen resolutions" and re-size your browser to view what others see and make a decision from your findings, an easy way to resize a window is to cut'n'paste the javascript below into the address bar and hit enter, dont forget to replace width, height values.

javascript:resizeTo(width,height)