Cascading Menus - DHTML

Is there a downside to using them?

[J_Mac]

Hello, I am in the process of redesigning my website to include a sort of detailed information section about our products and related topics. While compiling the pages and sub-pages of content, I realized the need for presenting it in a simple and orderly fashion.

I am considering using a cascading menu, which I believe will be my best option, but before moving forward with it I was wandering if there is any downside to using them.

Other than browser compatibility are there any other issues to consider such as people accepting them? Our average customer age is in the 35-65 range and I know from experience the simpler it is for them the better. Are Cascading menus considered simple for navigation?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated and thank you in advance.

[Nick_W]

Hi J_Mac Welcome to WebmasterWorld ;)

What are cascadding menus?

From your age-range I'd agree with the 'simple is best' approach. I'd try to keep all my links looking like links (blue underlined) on the left hand side for 'section specific' and change that menu with each section.

You caould also develope a color scheme for the left menu that would change for each section. (very easy with @import of an additional stylesheet per section).

HTH

Nick

[WibbleWobble]

If you mean cascading via Javascript (dhtml) you face the possibility that spiders will ignore or be unable to follow the links. And you'll have to consider how well they degrade for older or less visual browsers.
Those are the only two hurdles I can really think of.

[tedster]

My experience with cascading menus does show one common problem -- too many options are made available from one page, and those options all seem to be of an equal weight to the visitor.

It's an information architecture and navigation issue - when too many choices are presented to the user at once, they often make NO choice. It's better, but takes a lot more work, to sort of "spoon feed" the structure of the site to your visitor. This is especially true for your new visitor, since your repeat visitors have a chance to learn your site's interface. The issue is making sure you HAVE a lot of return visitors!

Earlier this year I converted one site away from the common cascade menu. This meant designing a new "landing page" for each menu item. The landing page presents the top level information for each section, information which would have been in the div that cascaded into view.

The landing page has another advantage over a cascading menu - there's more of a chance to stretch out in presenting the information, because there are no space constraints. So the visitor can make a more informed choice about each click.

The final result on this site was a significant increase in site stickiness, measured by "page views per unique".

Also, here's a recent related thread about Cascading Menus and Repetitve Strain Injury (RSI) [webmasterworld.com]

[J_Mac]

Thanks for all the information guys. Three more questions.

Considering our product category links are on the upper left hand section should I just just add one link that takes the visiter to our information section where the separate topic links are, or should list the separate topics as individual links on the home page to eliminate the amount of clicks it takes to get there? Will this make my home page too busy or will it simplify navigation for the user? And should they be also in the left hand column or should I put them across the top of the page?

Thanks again for your help.

[jimbeetle]

J_Mac,

One of our sites used cascading menus extensively for quite a long time. Had good site maps so didn't have to worry about pages being spiderd BUT learned that "Guaranteed compatible across all browsers" doesn't mean a dang thing when updates or new versions come out. The problems were almost insurmountable for one person "who almost knew what he was doing."

Concerning your category and topic links it would seem that if you can get your customer to the "buy" page in one click that that would be the way to go. Unless of course more information on the home page would muddle it up and make things hard to find.

Try to think like your visitor and go with what you would want to see. Have a couple of friends test it out and have a simple list of questions to ask them afterwards. Or, give them a simple task "Go here and find information on Blue Widgets." Firms charge big bucks for these tests but you can do some simple investigating yourself.

Jim

[BlobFisk]

There is some very interesting and pertinent information from SURL (Software and Useability Research Laboratory) that may be of use to you.

This section [psychology.wichita.edu] talks about site navigation structure, and this section [psychology.wichita.edu] goes through some findings on where users look for certain types of links/information.

I used to be a big user of cascading menus (and still do where necessary), but now I tend to focus from on the Information Architecture of the site (stressing the importance of this to the client) and base my navigation around that. As has been said, menus like this tend to dilute the importance of some content and can present too much information to the user in one pass.