The ubiquitous ‘hamburger menu’ as the only method of navigation in a digital product has allowed us to become lazy; it has become a way in which we can simply ‘plonk’ everything that we need include so that we hide valuable content away from users. We seem to have adopted a ‘what I can’t see won’t hurt me’ and that means that I don’t have to think about it!
The problem that I have with hamburger menus is that it was originally a device for mobile interfaces or use on adaptive mobile screens. I now see it being used on desktop websites for companies are either expert enough or large enough to know better. For me the hamburger menu sucks. Here’s why:
It can be argued in certain circumstances that using this device focuses the user on the task at hand by removing clutter – and by this I do agree. However this only works well when the user is trying to accomplish a single task and it does not lend its self to exploration or discovery.
But when users have so much competing for their attention, how can they grasp what your site or product is all about? With hamburger menus there is no context or story which can be brought to the surface. There is no opportunity to tell a story as immediately as a well considered primary navigation can. Users can’t then make a quick mental assimilation about what is available.
Using Hamburger menus on websites is an even more heinous crime. You may think that you are doing the user a favour by providing the user with. a focus or a starting point, but actually you are making discovery more difficult. As a user I can’t see the story – I can’t tell what is available. Therefore you have lost me. Hamburger menus don’t tell me where I am and where I could go. If anything it makes later process even more ineffective.
Granted small viewports offer limited space in which to be able to tell the story, however there must be more intuitive ways of encouraging user to do more. There is, it’s about offering users small signposts, especially in the context of a mobile view port, which demonstrates that there is more available; that will help increase your levels of engagement.
Frazer Cooper 