Full Screen Navigation
As a UX Designer, one of my favorite pieces of UI is probably the navigation menu. To me, it encapsulates everything important about UX in one neat piece. There’s interactivity, information architecture, visual design, user flow, and more — all wrapped up in one UI. It’s so juicy (heh, hamburger pun, get it?)
I remember the first time I landed on website that had full screen navigation. I wish I had the foresight to take a screenshot, but here’s something similar.
Brilliant. No distractions — just the menu items. Being the nerd I am, of course started messing with the browser window size and truly enjoyed how beautifully responsive it was. How more perfect can navigation get?
The large size means there are a million more possibilities than just a bar across the top. This article is an interesting example of the different ways to utilize a full screen menu.
But here’s the thing — it’s so new, there are literally zero case studies out there on the internet on how people feel about this type of interaction. And what information I do have is solely based on how I feel about them. My own thoughts on them are:
Pros
- Don’t have to build two different menus for desktop vs. mobile
- More space to expand a menu’s primary and secondary items without it feeling cramped
- Possibilities of including forms, imagery, etc. in the menu
- Users can navigate free from distraction of the website itself
Cons
- Often a hamburger icon is used to hide everything behind. (I’ve designed some full screen menus that don’t do this, but it’s not common)
- May not work well for websites that depend on tons of navigation movement — Do you really want to open up a full screen menu every time?
So I’m reaching out to you, internet, what’s been your experience with full screen menus? Love them? Hate them? Never seen one before?
Ashley Crutcher is a UX Engineer at Ansira located in downtown Dallas, TX. She tweets at @ashleyspixels and enjoys cuddling with her cat, crocheting, working out, and thinking too much about everything.
