Getting the menu design right
Tuesday, April 7th, 2009One of my favourite design blogs Smashing Magazine has just published an article showcasing well designed tabbed navigation and it’s got me thinking about the navigation on 101 Best Websites. We’ve had quite a lot of interest about the simple navigation but I wonder if it could be improved… I’m talking about the links through to categories and topics, not the main site menu.
When I first designed the layout I was thinking of only having 3 or 4 topics under the main categories but as we developed the site further I realised that this was going to increase – and now we’re looking at adding a few more topics in there.
What would be your ideal categories? Do we need the DOM/AJAX tab or should we concentrate on more Design led site list?
For the topics we took our lead from sites such as Digg and Reddit but maybe we need to look a little bit more at the sites we get regularly submitted and concentrate on the best of design: portfolios, design agencies, development companies etc.
I still don’t think a traditonal tabbed menu would work in that space, it would distract from the site list too much and wouldn’t allow much flexibility. As we get working on the site more over the next few weeks there may be a few changes appearing, let me know your thoughts!
Showcase of well designed tabbed navigation – from Smashing Magazine
