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Website navigation bars – desktop and mobile

By June 24th, 2021No Comments

There are many ways in which a website page can be designed. A key issue has become the number of website visitors that are using smartphones to browse websites. For consumer brands this can be a high percentage.

A key design element is the navigation bar. When I am asked about my website writing services, the nav bar forms an early part of the conversation. Here are some tips for you:

Navigation bars
Aim for between 7 and 9 items in your website nav bar
It is fine to use drop down menu items
Many successful / larger websites use secondary nav bar menus
Check to see how the nav bar looks on different devices
(mobile phones, tablets and desktop computers)
Within mobile phones, a standard menu can take up a lot of space at the top of the small screen; you can use a ‘hamburger icon’ or hamburger menu (AKA pancake or hotdog) which comprises three parallel horizontal lines ☰ which is usually positioned in the top left hand or top right hand corner of a mobile phone screen
A breadcrumb trail helps users to understand where they are in your website
Ideally, use only one word for each nav bar item.
For example, ‘About’ is better than ‘About us’

Lower case is easier to read than upper case. On this basis, it is better to have
Home About Services Contact …than HOME ABOUT SERVICES CONTACT

Within WordPress, by the way, it is easy to change your website’s menu structure as they have a drag and drop system.

My services include webcopy writing training:

Copywriting training for digital marketing

Nigel Temple

Author Nigel Temple

Nigel Temple is a marketing consultant, speaker, trainer and writer. Topics include: AI / ChatGPT, Marketing strategy, Digital marketing, SEO, Copywriting, Mailchimp. Nigel is available to hire for a consultancy meeting, training workshop, speaking event or marketing project. Email: nigel@nigeltemple.com Or call Nigel on: 01628 773128

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