Contents
It’s a simple solution. It’s unassuming. And it doesn’t get in the way of your user’s experience. So, if you’re looking for a way to include easy access to your navigational menu without bogging down your users, a hamburger menu is a good answer.
The hamburger menu used on this page is accessible via the keyboard and is friendly to screen readers. When the navigation panel opens, the ‘close’ button is also keyboard accessible. You can also use the ESC key to close the slide-out navigation.
Are there any downsides to using a hamburger menu?
Let’s get started. One of the biggest downsides to using a hamburger menu is that it doesn’t showcase an app’s features very well. 25% of apps get deleted after first use, suggesting that many apps aren’t quick enough to demonstrate the value they’ll provide in users’ lives. That’s why onboarding is so key.
Do you really click through to the hamburger menu?
Since then, the hamburger menu has become the go-to icon for apps and websites to drop in their navigation buttons. Now, the hamburger menu has become the icon that designers love to hate. After all, do people actually click through to hamburger menus? And even if they do, if the menu items were so important shouldn’t they be shown all the time?
Hamburger menus have dramatically lower click rates (and engagement) than other buttons, which can be attributed to a number of reasons. First, they are hard to reach. With phones getting bigger with each generation, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to reach places where the hamburger button is typically found (top left or right corners).
There are good reasons that so many apps out there are using the hamburger menu as well. The menu style is prolific for good reason. What is even going on here?! One of the worst things you can do when designing an app is to overload your users with choices, creating decision fatigue.