Is a hamburger menu on your website really that yummy for the user?
Advantages and disadvantages of a hamburger menu
Burger menus. A much-discussed topic. Not only during the Friday afternoon, but also when it comes to a (new) website. The icon with three horizontal lines is nice discussion material. Because do you drive website visitors away with it or is it a must? Perhaps your subconscious mind wants to drive directly to McDonalds right now... Don't do it and stick around. We'll discuss the pros and cons of having a hamburger menu on your site.
The menu icon where — if you look closely — you recognize a sandwich and a piece of meat is therefore called a hamburger menu. Secretly, the three lines represent a list of options, but of course that sounds less good. You'll usually find the menu at the top of a site. Here, all menu links are hidden behind that subtle burger. If you use sites like Facebook or Spotify, the burger isn't new to you.
Why you do want to offer hamburger navigation to website visitors!
Consistency
At first, the hamburger menu only appeared on smartphones and tablets. Saving space is therefore a must. Hiding the menu behind three simple lines turned out to be a very good idea. But for a number of years, it has been a responsive design that has been sounding the alarm. We (almost) all have a website suitable for all devices. This is why many designers often keep the mobile user in mind when designing. Mobile first! Logical, because more than 70% of all web traffic comes from mobile internet use. In addition, many designers opt for consistency and therefore also maintain the hamburger menu on a desktop.
Clean and organized
In the website world, image and atmosphere play a major role. Online is content king and it's nice that you can hide a messy menu. If your site focuses on visual or interactive content, hamburger navigation offers a functional solution. Without distracting. By hiding a large menu or your social media buttons behind this handy piece of functionality, your site stays clean and organized.
All the cool kids have hamburger menus
Spotify and Facebook are undoubtedly the most popular kids in the online town. And when one (popular) sheep crosses the dam, several will follow. This also means that more and more websites are opting for a citizen. As a result, users get used to this menu. A few years ago, they didn't know where the menu was hide-and-seek, but nowadays, a hamburger menu is becoming increasingly obvious. Website visitors who have grown up with social media even automatically search for citizens.
Surely a hamburger menu isn't so good for the user experience?
Where is the menu?
With this type of navigation, it still happens that the user is drowsy looking for the menu. However, citizen navigation already appeared on responsive sites in 2012. That's why more and more people recognize the symbol. Of course, this partly depends on your target group. Someone aged 65+ will need more time than a millennial. Of course, you never want a frustrated website visitor to be on your conscience when it comes to user-friendliness. You also want to prevent this for your bounce rate (and ultimately your findability).
Information hidden between citizens
If you have specific pages that you want to direct website visitors to, they should be able to navigate to them easily. With a citizen navigation, people are less likely to intuitively click on the action page, to name just one example. In this way, this type of navigation overtakes its purpose and can have a negative effect on click through rate and conversion.
More clicks — and not in a good way
Online, it's all about clicks. The more the better. Like search engine ads. Once the website visitor is on your site, you want them to have to click or scroll as little as possible to find what they're looking for. A hamburger menu provides at least 1 extra click and this has no positive effect on the user experience, according to the study 'Hamburger Menus and Hidden Navigation Hurt UX Metrics'.
Conclusion: a hamburger menu a tasty solution?
A hamburger navigation has advantages and disadvantages and is now the most common menu form on smartphones and tablets. At the moment, however, there is plenty of speculation and there are alternatives in the works for even better usability. A citizen puts the spotlight on the content of the website. But when it comes to usability, traditional menu design often prevails. Especially on the desktop version of the site. In short, consider carefully what you want to achieve with your website and which menu best suits it.
Do you find this interesting and would you like to sink your teeth into a hamburger together? Take contact on to discuss the options.
Need digital advice?
handlebars marielle@effectgroep.nl an email or call her on 030 — 41 00 790. That will always be an inspiring conversation!
