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Honest question: What problem did hamburger menus solve? I remember menus before. They were there, they were obvious, and they didn't need someone to explain t

by ghusto 3y ago

Honest question: What problem did hamburger menus solve? I remember menus before. They were there, they were obvious, and they didn't need someone to explain them to me. The first time I was on a site with a hamburger menu, I'm not embarrassed to say that it to me _minutes_ to figure out what it was. I see how they're not as obvious, and would make that trade if they solved some serious worthwhile problem, but what was that?

JohnFen 3y ago
IIRC, they came about because of smartphones having limited screen space which made normal menus problematic. In that view, I understand them even though they're terrible. I just wish they'd stay on smartphones and not appear elsewhere.
Brendinooo 3y ago
You need your menu design to work at every viewport width between 320 and 1900+. So if you want to have your top level items on the screen at all times: 1. You have to decide if your top-level menu will be dictated by the smallest width or not 2. If not 1, then you have to decide what will happen when a lot of menu ends up in a smaller space. Do you wrap it (and risk using up your "above the fold" space on menu items) or do something that requires scrolling/opening submenus? Also, whatever design you come up is almost inevitably messed up after handoff, when the client adds a word to a top-level item or adds five more top-level items. Hamburgers solve this by giving up a bit of usability and gaining a ton of screen real estate to work with as a result. As a designer-turned-developer, I've warmed to them over time, as has the Internet at large. If it helps, maybe consider them as a "the worst solution, except for every other solution" sort of thing. It's a pragmatic choice. And it's not like menus aren't a common paradigm of computing anyways.
- ghusto 3y ago
  Thanks, it makes sense now. Basically needing to play down the the lowest common-denominator :/

by ghusto 3y ago

JohnFen 3y ago

IIRC, they came about because of smartphones having limited screen space which made normal menus problematic. In that view, I understand them even though they're terrible. I just wish they'd stay on smartphones and not appear elsewhere.

Brendinooo 3y ago

You need your menu design to work at every viewport width between 320 and 1900+. So if you want to have your top level items on the screen at all times: 1. You have to decide if your top-level menu will be dictated by the smallest width or not 2. If not 1, then you have to decide what will happen when a lot of menu ends up in a smaller space. Do you wrap it (and risk using up your "above the fold" space on menu items) or do something that requires scrolling/opening submenus? Also, whatever design you come up is almost inevitably messed up after handoff, when the client adds a word to a top-level item or adds five more top-level items. Hamburgers solve this by giving up a bit of usability and gaining a ton of screen real estate to work with as a result. As a designer-turned-developer, I've warmed to them over time, as has the Internet at large. If it helps, maybe consider them as a "the worst solution, except for every other solution" sort of thing. It's a pragmatic choice. And it's not like menus aren't a common paradigm of computing anyways.

ghusto 3y ago
Thanks, it makes sense now. Basically needing to play down the the lowest common-denominator :/