15 comments

  • Matthew O'ConnorMatthew O'Connor, almost 5 years ago

    The alternative to a hamburger is to have visible navigation. Who would have guessed?

    14 points
  • Andy MerskinAndy Merskin, almost 5 years ago

    I mean, sometimes people want a hotdog link instead of a burger at a BBQ. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

    7 points
  • No NameNo Name, almost 5 years ago

    I can't help but think, "Wait... isn't this just a navbar?"

    2 points
  • Aaron Wears Many HatsAaron Wears Many Hats, almost 5 years ago

    hmmm. This is fine on larger mobile screens, but I could imagine on an iPhone5 form factor etc you'd have most of the above-the-fold space taken up by buttons.

    I'm sure ten years ago the argument for not using hamburger menus was valid, as the pattern was new and people might not have understood it.

    But come on. There is an entire generation of users now that grew up using them. It's an old pattern now. The only argument against them is for SEO reasons, which honestly can be mitigated easily enough using other tools in your toolbox.

    2 points
    • Devesh Khanal, almost 5 years ago

      You would think but in our tests the more you expose links to products the more those variations win. I think even if you know where to find something, actually seeing it without having to ask for it changes your interaction. That is what the data is suggesting. Not every single time but more often than not that seems to be the case.

      EDIT: just realized another currently trending article on here about most hated UX trends literally has the hamburger menu as #1: https://icons8.com/articles/most-hated-ui-ux-design-pattern/ and mentions just writing the word "menu" gets 20% more clicks than the icon.

      2 points
      • Aaron Wears Many HatsAaron Wears Many Hats, almost 5 years ago

        I honestly struggle to believe the data presented by icon8... i.e. "The case was settled in 2014"... That's four years ago, which is what I'm sort of getting at. And "If you combine the hamburger icon and the word “Menu” in one button, you will get 5% more revenue" ... Claiming that one particular retailer saw an increase in revenue doesn't mean everyone will have an increase in revenue.

        I get what you mean though. I just personally don't think very highly of icon8's writing :)

        0 points
  • Roman PohoreckiRoman Pohorecki, almost 5 years ago

    Apple basically recommends the same pattern on iOS: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/ios/bars/tab-bars/

    Check out this awesome pattern that treats the hamburger menu as an overflow https://codepen.io/chriscoyier/pen/GJRXYE

    2 points
    • Devesh Khanal, almost 5 years ago

      Oooh, I really like the dropaway nav. The companies we work with seem to always go with "show...show...show...OMG HIDE ALL LINKS BEHIND THE HAMBURGER RIGHT NOW" This makes a lot more sense.

      0 points
  • Lisa Nguyen, almost 5 years ago

    Great article! Designs have primarily focused on just a hamburger menu on mobile, so it's interesting how much of an increase in orders there were by also adding a link bar.

    1 point
  • David ThornDavid Thorn, almost 5 years ago

    This is less of an alternative and more of an additional piece of navigation.

    That aside, the study seems to conclude that putting links up top is beneficial, but anything that requires scrolling will get no increased traffic. So, if you have more than the 3 or so links that can fit, you need to have a full fledged navigation section up top, which was previously hidden behind the hamburger menu because it takes up space. And not having a large chunk of navigation was kind of the whole point of the hamburger in mobile.

    Also, ecommerce-centric, and I wonder how it'd apply to other industries.

    0 points
    • Devesh Khanal, almost 5 years ago

      This is true: "anything that requires scrolling will get no increased traffic" so we take it to mean that you should figure out the most important links and show them first and foremost.

      I'd be curious about people trying it in other industries as well. e.g. inside mobile apps if you want users to take more of a certain action I imagine a test like this to unhide that action from some interior menu would be worthwhile.

      0 points