3 Current Trends in Website Navigation
Irrespective of the number of new website trends which keep coming and fading away, the main focus would be on improving the web User Experience or UX. A wonderful user experience involves ensuring pleasant and easy access to website information.
This is true not only in website designing trends but also in the case of navigation patterns, as well as, the elements we design. So by using the full-screen navigation or even the single-page Scroll Navigation, you are trying to cater to two demands such as enhanced User Experience and ease of use. A poor design would be delivering the type of UX people are asking for; while a fantastic one would be delivering a UX that is actually needed by the people.
There are, therefore, several different and novel ways of designing the web navigation elements and patterns that we would be adopting in the current year. The ultimate aim would be to give a new dimension to the UX. Here are a few navigational styles that are supposed to be the latest trends for the year 2017.
Fixed Scrolling Navbars
Navigation is actually made for helping users to go from the Point A to the other points that are present on the site. By making sure that the nav menu would be in any fixed place, it would be allowing users to effectively go about navigating the site easily from any location.
This has become far easier with iQuery and CSS plug-ins and there are more themes that come inbuilt with the web page’s fixed navbar. Usability and consistent navigation are vital.
However, the fixed navbar is pretty handy, especially, for all the mobile users as they do not require swiping back right to the top for only browsing further into any website.
If you are having a website with several navigation items, in such a case, it would be a clever idea to keep the navbar fixed. It is the best technique for keeping visitors stuck to the site for a longer period of time and increasing total number of page views. You could browse through http://www.lasvegaswebdesignco.com/ for proficient web designing services.
Mega Menus
Mega Menu designs that were such a hit just some years back were unfortunately short-lived. Designers would be giving mega menu concept a second thought. However, it is pretty commonly used till date on desktops along with secondary options meant for relatively smaller screens, but certainly with slightly more success. Large retailers with extensive user choices would like this design concept. Mega navigation actually fills the screen and that makes this navigation style work accurately.
The mega menu has gained popularity with the advent and growth of magazine-style blogs. They actually are different from the usual dropdowns as, instead, of simply flowing down vertically; they would be expanding wider and generally, having content in multiple columns.
Mega menus are in vogue so that visitors could gather a proper sense of your website or blog simply by scanning through the related content. If in a mega menu, there is scope for providing more content then you should do that. However, this trend would not be working on mobile as there is hardly any room on the screen. Despite that, mega menus enjoy wide popularity.
Responsive Subnav Menus
You simply cannot think of avoiding mobile responsive navigation. This one is extremely popular and certainly here to stay. You would be seeing this technique only in some small browser windows and mobile screens.
This is popularly used as visitors must have easy access to browsing your entire website irrespective of the device that is being used by them. Simply by making sure that the sub-menus are in place, you could provide a better chance for visitors to easily browse around.
Conclusion
We could conclude by saying that the latest website designs would be having their main navigation slashed to really a bare minimum. Other links could be availed using hamburger navigation, mega menus, and other navigation as per the User Experience and the context. UX would certainly be given top priority in determining the website navigation.