Animated Navigation

Back in the day (the late 90’s to be precise) it was quite easy for a web designer to get his audience salivating with a few simple mouseover effects on his menu items. A bit of JavaScript did the trick nicely!

Those hey days of early web sorcery are over since Flash stepped into the ring. Nowadays a wide variety of visual effects can be achieved by the means of the “timeline” and programmed transitions that can even include audio and video. Smart mathematics allow us to create complex navigational systems. There are hardly any technical boundaries. The only limitation is the web designer’s own imagination.

Do

1. Be creative, yet keep in mind that the main purpose of a menu is to navigate through a site. Your user should immediately understand it’s purpose and it’s working.
2. Make sure that your navigation system is bullet proof.
3. Make sure, for example, that the selected menu item is not clickable. Reloading the actual page because of a selected menu item still being clickable is the worst, but also the most common mistake.

Don’t

1. Use that 10 year old JavaScript effect anymore.
2. Overestimate your user either. Today’s website visitor has little time and patience.
3. Forget that your user doesn’t want to spend all day navigating through a site.