Fixed-Position Menu in Website Design – Enhancing Site Navigation

Navigation has always been the most crucial element in website design because this is what determines how well users can explore the site and find the right information. There are numerous ways of setting up the navigation menu to make the site not only easy to browse, but also enhances the overall appearance of the site. One of the most popular navigation styles these days is the fixed-position menus.

In websites design that use traditional navigation style, users have to scroll up each time to access the menu. The fixed-position menu or sticky menu, on the other hand, remains static in its place, so that it doesn’t move up as the user scrolls down the web page. More users prefer websites with sticky menus because they can be accessed even when the web page has been scrolled down. This also ensures that people can move on to next web page in less time when the websites has a sticky menu in contrast with the websites with standard navigation menus.

Here, we outline some of the common benefits of fixed-position menus that most web users have experienced –

-    Quicker navigation

-    Ease of use

-    Higher accessibility of web pages

-    Mobile-friendly

-    Improved user experience

While it is not suitable in every situation, fixed-position menus can be a good alternative to traditional ones when it comes to improving the usability and user experience. Though it is mostly preferred for the primary navigation menu, fixed-position style is also used is the side bars and footers.

For web designers who are considering to use sticky menus in their websites, must have a look at the tips mentioned below in order to make the site easy-to-use.

Use CSS – Most web designers use CSS to create fixed-position menu as it is easy to implement and quickest to code. The position, margin-top and z-index have to be adjusted in order to make the menu work for your website.

Should not compete with content for attention – The position of the menu bar has to be determined carefully so that it does not obstruct the content or takes away all the attention from it. Content should always be the most important element of the web page and the menu should ideally be either on top of the page, on side bar or at the footer. Positioning it in the centre of the page is a bad idea as it obstructs reading of the content.

Ideal for websites that have long web pages – The perfect situation for using sticky menus is when the web pages of the site are too long. This menu style ensures that the user doesn’t have to scroll all the way up to reach the menu.

Do not use iFrames – This tool can be used for creating fixed-position menu but it should be avoided because it hampers cross-browser compatibility and search engine optimisation of the site.