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The Navigation Bar Is an Affordance, Stop Removing It

uxmovement.com

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Re: The Navigation Bar Is an Affordance, Stop Removing It

#21

Post by roldie »

jalfresi wrote: post #8
Shenglong wrote: post #6

This is a pretty crass statement to make. If the focus is full-on navigability, I agree that contrast in the navigation bar is paramount. Yet, for many sites with simplified features, the emotional experience trumps the direct navigability of the site itself. This is especially true for sites like Airbnb (as in the example) where in addition to emotional response, there is an immediate focus on activating users. The…

"...the emotional experience trumps the direct navigability of the site itself" The above statement is everything that is wrong with modern visual styling of software. After everything is said and done, software is a tool which people use to accomplish a goal. I would argue that anything that causes friction with that is Bad Design. As much as some visual/interaction designers may think that "experience is everything…

There was a great talk at SXSW last year entitled "The Myth of Reducing Friction in your Product."

Basically, within a given flow (say onboarding or signup), you want to consider having some points of friction interspersed with low friction points. Adding friction in the right places helps to create users who will a)come back and b)will be more active users. The speaker presented some data to back up her assertions.

Getting back to OP's point, the emotional experience is a point of friction that may be worthwhile. Though it may slow down the conversion process or whatever flow the user is supposed to go through, it may result in users who become more attached to the product and ultimately spend more.

http://schedule.sxsw.com/2015/2015/events/event_IAP35677

Re: The Navigation Bar Is an Affordance, Stop Removing It

#22

Post by tragic »

jerf wrote: post #18
vonklaus wrote: post #15

To be fair, right where airbnb is cutoff is a massive searchbox for your travel destination. The NYT/news in general, they have navigation but they typically put breaking headlines/articles on the front page with links to othet sections. I assume squares nav goes fixed on scroll. I know that friction is bad, however, I refuse to assume that my users have an IQ of less than a carrot. I am not exactly asking them to sp…

"I refuse to assume that my users have an IQ of less than a carrot." Think of it less as an IQ issue and more of a "cognitive energy" issue. Even a smart person would prefer something easier rather than harder because they've got things to do with their limited cognitive energy budget other than merely navigate your website. Plus energy burned that way is energy they're not burning on your actual content, whatever it…

Also relevant: http://seriouspony.com/blog/2013/7/24/your-app-makes-me-fat

Re: The Navigation Bar Is an Affordance, Stop Removing It

#23

Post by tragic »

jerf wrote: post #18
vonklaus wrote: post #15

To be fair, right where airbnb is cutoff is a massive searchbox for your travel destination. The NYT/news in general, they have navigation but they typically put breaking headlines/articles on the front page with links to othet sections. I assume squares nav goes fixed on scroll. I know that friction is bad, however, I refuse to assume that my users have an IQ of less than a carrot. I am not exactly asking them to sp…

"I refuse to assume that my users have an IQ of less than a carrot." Think of it less as an IQ issue and more of a "cognitive energy" issue. Even a smart person would prefer something easier rather than harder because they've got things to do with their limited cognitive energy budget other than merely navigate your website. Plus energy burned that way is energy they're not burning on your actual content, whatever it…

Also relevant: http://seriouspony.com/blog/2013/7/24/your-app-makes-me-fat

Re: The Navigation Bar Is an Affordance, Stop Removing It

#24

Post by Domenic_S »

gnaritas wrote: post #19
Shenglong wrote: post #6

This is a pretty crass statement to make. If the focus is full-on navigability, I agree that contrast in the navigation bar is paramount. Yet, for many sites with simplified features, the emotional experience trumps the direct navigability of the site itself. This is especially true for sites like Airbnb (as in the example) where in addition to emotional response, there is an immediate focus on activating users. The…

> the emotional experience trumps the direct navigability of the site itself Users don't come to a website for an emotional experience, they come to use the tool to do something. Emotional experience never trumps usability, ever. The only emotional experience sites with bad usability have is user anger at not being able to figure out how the damn thing works.

The usability of what? Not a glib question -- if your goal is to give the user a feeling which results in them clicking a signup button or going through another flow you've got laid out, why would you want to muddy that up with a nav bar?

For a lot of sites, "Get started" is the #1 thing you want people to do from the homepage. We've known forever that removing distractions from register/checkout/PPC pages increases completion rates -- if you look at your homepage as another page that needs completions then this makes perfect sense.

Re: The Navigation Bar Is an Affordance, Stop Removing It

#25

Post by pc86 »

jalfresi wrote: post #7
Domenic_S wrote: post #3

Although it's my same intuitive feeling, Your background image is not more important than your navigation bar is a pretty strong assertion without citing studies or presenting some trends in user stories.

Really? You really need studies and trends to decide if the bleedin' obvious is necessary? If your users can't use it, it doesn't matter how pretty it is.

Unless you're content to just make shit up as you go along, yes.

Re: The Navigation Bar Is an Affordance, Stop Removing It

#26

Post by legitster »

From a front end development, there is actually a simple reason they are going away: Users looking for something will eventually find it anyway. But for people hitting the website for the first time, it is easier to guide them right to the call to action. It's easy for UX people to complain about finding things, but for a lot of sites it is pretty effective at reducing bounce rate.

Re: The Navigation Bar Is an Affordance, Stop Removing It

#27

Post by starshadowx2 »

mentos wrote: post #2

"Perfection is Achieved Not When There Is Nothing More to Add, But When There Is Nothing Left to Take Away" I installed the new iTunes for my friends dad this weekend when I was helping him with his computer troubles. It took me way too long to find the file menu and it occurred to me in that moment that UI/UX designers have gone too far. In the pursuit of simplicity the marble nose has been chipped off the sculpture…

I still use iTunes 10.7 because it was the last version before they (in my opinion) ruined the navigation and menus.

Re: The Navigation Bar Is an Affordance, Stop Removing It

#28

Post by panglott »

ashark wrote: post #12

Relatedly, I noticed the other day that I'm developing a flick-down reflex in response to seeing those stupid "hero" header images/videos appear on page. It's becoming an unconscious action. These headers are the Flash Intro Page of our day. Unnecessary hamburger menus and obscured menu text are our version of Flash Mystery Meat navigation. I blame Apple and iOS 7 for the latter problem. That popularized ultra-thin t…

Yea, as soon as I see a big image header I reflexively start scrolling through the article looking for some actual information.

I blame Google/Android for all those inscrutable hamburger menus, which are like rooting around in the trash can for essential functionality.

Re: The Navigation Bar Is an Affordance, Stop Removing It

#29

Post by Brakenshire »

jseliger wrote: post #17

Funny that this article should appear: I have been complaining about the Campaign Living website for a while: http://www.campaignliving.com/ . The Campaign Living product concept is very interesting—furniture that's actually comfortable but that can also be taken apart. But there is no nav bar and few details about the product on their site. It's very annoying. Their desktop browser experience feels broken. All this…

That first website is just a blank screen on Firefox.

Re: The Navigation Bar Is an Affordance, Stop Removing It

#30

Post by [deleted] »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #9

It's funny how UX collectively misses arguably the most important principle - you design for a particular purpose . If the purpose of a site is to sell users some shit, no surprise the site will be dumbed down. Most of the sites are written this way. The sad thing is, patterns developed for those are then applied to things that should be tools . E.g. Google apps redesigns, which lose features and get more annoying to…

[deleted]
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