Pop up menus

[limbo]

Hello all - hope i have the right page for this question.

I am working on a intranet homepage redesign. My boss is insistant we use the pop-up menu creator in firworks 4 to increase the ease of site navigation. I am positive that this is not necessary and will just affect page download time.
Pop up menus look great and do "pop-up" eventually but are they just a gimmick?

I'd appreciate your thoughts

Ta.

[Reflect]

will just affect page download time.

Since this is Intaranet based I would not think it would heavily affect the page's download time.

If you are not sure you want to go this route maybe present him/her with a couple of other solutions? That way maybe you could steer them to you preffered alternative.

Just my .02,

Brian

<edit>By the way welcome to WebmasterWorld.</edit>

[korkus2000]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld limbo [webmasterworld.com]

They are an Intranet gimmick, but people seem to like them. Most intranets link to word documents and other nonweb stuff that is constantly updated. They want the one click navigation to get there. I have put many pop up navs on intranet sites and really haven't seen a download problem. I would suggest server-side includes for your navigation. Those menus can get to be a nightmare. You will find you will be adding and taking them away quite frequently.

[tedster]

This might be a place for a quick test with a few users if your boss will allow. If you mock up two versions of the page and survey even a handful of the users you will find out if they prefer this enhancement.

I know I probably wouldn't - I prefer seeing all my options in the same glance so I can easily compare one to another.

[limbo]

Thanks all.

Very useful advice. I tried your suggestion Tedster and got an overwhelmingly positive reaction toward the pop-up menus I created (even I have to admit I gone n' done a good job!) Perhaps my boss was right? But I'm not one to give up lightly so after a long discussion and a few raised voices we have come to tidy compromise incorporating both simplified pop-up menus and a clearly defined onscreen navigation. This got an even better response from my "sift". Not a bad days work

Ta

Limbo msungue

[tedster]

Wow, your boss approves of testing. That's a very good thing.

I've run into people who would much rather evolve their site by consulting tea leaves or moss growth. Even when I have solid numbers to show that an idea is intensely suicidal, this particular breed would still have their own way.

I once designed an inventory control application for a company I used to work for. I took the greatest pleasure in setting up a prototype interface and then tweaking it with the people who would have to use the final version.

The folks who helped test really appreciated that they were consulted and listened to. And man, did we ever get that interface to be efficient.

Live testing is the very best - glad you got the chance.