State of The Hamburger Buttons
How are they doing today and can we avoid them once and for all?
There has been a lot talked about the notorious ‘hamburger’ button in mobile apps. Recently being this TechCrunch article — Kill The Hamburger Button.
I haven’t done tests myself but luckily others have and shared it in the interweb. While we can talk how bad, awful these ‘three line’ buttons are and how bad we don’t like the design- tests like these help us understand how (your) users perceive this ‘three line’ button.
- UX designers: Side drawer navigation could be costing you half your user engagement
- Hamburger vs Menu: The Final AB Test
- Why and How to avoid Hamburger Menus
I have been an android user for quite a long time (love my HTC One ☺) and this hamburger is everywhere, almost in every android app I use (Why wouldn’t they?). For example, gmail uses it extensively — in fact, I need to know its existence if I ever have to be productive in the app:
In my iPhone, not so bad. Many apps use tabbed navigation at the bottom instead of the hamburger button. For example, here is Yammer app:
Have Apps Evolved?
Google+ App for Android
I think this is a perfect candidate and I assume Google has lots of data to back up its rapid design changes/updates. (If you are an Android user, you will know Google+ app has been receiving major updates every now and then)
Google+ app too started with the hamburger button. In fact, its iOS app still uses the hamburger button to reveal the side navigation drawer menu:
However, with the recent update for their android app, Google has moved away from hamburger to something that is intuitive and welcoming for the users (highlighted in a red box):
Clicking on ‘Everything’ reveals the drop down menu:
I feel this is much better and engaging to the user than having a hamburger button that is non-intuitive. I hope Google can do the same with their other apps! (Gmail someone?)
Can We Avoid Them?
I sure think we can. Facebook, Twitter and now Google moving away from this design clearly shows us that the hamburger button isn’t doing good with users and its time to evolve.
So, if you are using the notorious hamburger button in your app:
— Have you lately looked at your data?
— Are you ready to say good-bye to the hamburger once and for all?
