Site Navigation for larger sites

Izi · 27 Aug 2009 at 09:58

I need to design a navgiation for a site with several sections (Blogs/Forums/News etc etc). Each section will have sub sections, so will need sub nav.

I am thinking of horizonal navigation, with a sub navigation when hovering over a parent section.

e.g:
http://www.sohtanaka.com/web-design/examples/horizontal-subnav/
http://www.duoh.com/csstutorials/2levelmenu/index.html

Anyone else have any opinions on navigation for larger sites?

Edward01 · 27 Aug 2009 at 11:00

Big fan of the top one. But i'd consider having the blue permanently there instead of a drop down fixture.

gord · 27 Aug 2009 at 11:01

That top example looks very nice and would definitely work as long as you dont have too many sub-sections (otherwise they might spill over the width).

Also it might not be so elegant for 2 tiers of sub-sections.

Izi · 27 Aug 2009 at 11:06

Edward01 said:
Big fan of the top one. But i'd consider having the blue permanently there instead of a drop down fixture.

This is what i was thinking, to have the blue always visible for the section you are in.

I don't link the idea of hiding nav items - what is everyone else's thoughts on 'hidden' items?

Deleted User 234324 · 27 Aug 2009 at 11:14

Use a menu much like the top one on one of the sites i worked on ages ago, site is nothing special as it was done as a freebie.

http://www.torbaycab.org.uk/

Tripnologist · 27 Aug 2009 at 11:52

I'd go with the top one but I'd use superfish.

http://users.tpg.com.au/j_birch/plugins/superfish/#sample4

The only thing with the default animation is that IE doesn't like to apply AA on text when it or it's container animates opacity. If you change it to slide and set the speed to 0, it looks fine.

Imy · 28 Aug 2009 at 17:19

Also consider the main nav across the top but the sub nav to appear down the left/right in the content area. This works well for plugging into CMSs as it tends to be the sub-navs which grow over time and you could run out of horizontal space in the design.

MarcLister · 28 Aug 2009 at 17:53

Not a CSS expert but the top nav version is very s****y. Just the kind of thing I could do with for my own site.

Izi said:
I don't link the idea of hiding nav items - what is everyone else's thoughts on 'hidden' items?

Personally I don't mind it. In this case you mouse over an item and discover there is sub-menu. So you become aware of it pretty soon.