Say goodbye to the hamburger menu.
As of recent, mobile apps are beginning to phase out the ever-popular hamburger menu. What is a hamburger menu? “The hamburger–also called the side menu or navigation drawer–is a small icon that, when clicked, will reveal a website’s navigation. The navigation typically will slide down from either the side or top of the screen, and will remain visible until the user clicks on one of the page links in the menu or on the open page behind it.” (Westwerk)
Why is the new trend to ditch the tiny navigation? After multiple extensive studies, programmers are finding that users actually tend to discover less pages and spend less time on mobile apps when comparing a hamburger menu to a more obvious, static icon bar at the bottom of the screen.
Take Spotify, for example, an app which utilized the hamburger menu from their launch in 2006 until May of 2016. “The company tested the tab bar on iOS to see how it impacted user engagement. It found that users with the tab bar ended up clicking 9% more in general and 30% more on actual menu items. The tests also revealed that reducing the number of options in the tab bar to five increased the reach of Spotify’s programmed content, the company says.” (TechCrunch)
Sometimes the classic, less-is-more approach that we’ve all heard before isn’t necessarily the most effective option when it comes to functionality and user experience. We believe that that use of static key sections will slowly start to play a role on mobile-view of day to day websites in the very near future, as well, (for sites with minimal navigation links.) and will become the next best practice for mobile menus.
It is important to always challenge design standards.
“Best practice” is a term commonly used in the design world, but it is important to remember that best practices are not set in stone. Design trends are constantly changing due to technology updates and the public’s familiarity with the technology they use.