Navigation design: the questions we get asked most

The version of this that works is simpler than the version most people imagine. The questions about navigation design that come up most often on our calls.

Design decisions are the ones clients feel most confident arguing about, which makes it worth separating taste from evidence early. Write the reasoning down alongside the decision, because the reasoning is what changes first.

Do we need to care about this?

Seven or fewer top-level items keeps a menu scannable. None of that requires a large budget, only a decision and someone to own it. It rarely shows up as a line item, which is exactly why it slips.

Can it wait until after launch?

Occasionally. More often the post-launch version costs several times the pre-launch one. There is a version of this that is over-engineered, and it is worth avoiding.

How do we know it is working?

A visible current-page state prevents visitors getting lost. Where this goes wrong is almost never a lack of knowledge. It is worth deciding this deliberately rather than inheriting whatever the last person set up.

In practice

Consistency is the quiet half of design work: it rarely gets complimented, and its absence is noticed immediately. Three things worth confirming about navigation design before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Seven or fewer top-level items keeps a menu scannable — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

None of this needs a rewrite. Most of it is a morning's work once someone decides to do it.