Thread: New Homepage critque

We've just updated our homepage as it was looking rather dated.

Find My Supplies

any comments or feedback would be much appreciated.

I personally think the drop down menu's should be onhover rather than onclick.

Originally Posted by FindmySupplies

I personally think the drop down menu's should be onhover rather than onclick.

Yes I agree...

yeah it needs proper drop downs but other than that i think it looks good.
Bordering on being busy (but I'm a bit of a minimalist) but it's all very informative so I can't really hold it against you, Nice :)

Thanks folks, already on with amending the Navigation so that they work how people would expect.

Nice website, professional and straighforward.

The banner scrolling at the top is a little fast (5 secs).

The menus should be on drop down rather than onclick like you say, also they should be on the whole text link rather than the tiny arrow. The top banner images look like they have a bit too much compression but other than that looks pretty good.

Originally Posted by FindmySupplies

I personally think the drop down menu's should be onhover rather than onclick.

I was just thinking exactly the opposite. Remember there is no 'hover' on touchscreen devices so dropdown on click is what you should go for nowadays. I am looking for a good onclick dropdown for a project at the moment.

Originally Posted by Corrosive

I was just thinking exactly the opposite. Remember there is no 'hover' on touchscreen devices so dropdown on click is what you should go for nowadays. I am looking for a good onclick dropdown for a project at the moment.

I don't think you should compromise major functionality for all the desktop audience just because of touch screen devices. Your top level menu should link to a page with all the sub menu options inside it anyway so it wouldn't matter from a navigation point of view if the hover doesn't work on touch. To those users they wouldn't see any difference as they could still navigate the site fine. Also its important to note that hover does actually work on iOS devices as a kind of pseudo press event - its only android that would definitely not show the hover state. Try a hover drop down menu on an iPad / iPhone - it should actually work.

Originally Posted by richimgd

I don't think you should compromise major functionality for all the desktop audience just because of touch screen devices.

I'm not sure I understand how click is compromising functionality. Click/hover, what difference?

Originally Posted by richimgd

Your top level menu should link to a page with all the sub menu options inside it anyway so it wouldn't matter from a navigation point of view if the hover doesn't work on touch.

I agree with this and tend to do my nav this way anyway when given the freedom. With some headline links in a horizontal nav driving perhaps some side links on each page. It is just sometimes customers love dropdowns for some reason so you have to find ways and means. I think click rather than hover is hardly the end of the world.

I also have taken to providing some static links in a footer or a full sitemap where I can.

From personal experience we had a client who had a graphic designer draw up a layout and he went with dropdowns and so we built it that way. Three weeks later he comes back and says 'I can't navigate it on my iPad'. That's the only time but lesson learnt!

Originally Posted by richimgd

To those users they wouldn't see any difference as they could still navigate the site fine. Also its important to note that hover does actually work on iOS devices as a kind of pseudo press event - its only android that would definitely not show the hover state. Try a hover drop down menu on an iPad / iPhone - it should actually work.

Well that's all right then cos the Apple fan boys will be OK

Of course there are many different considerations when building a site from audience to platform. Always good to consider where your site will be seen and used.

Originally Posted by Corrosive

I'm not sure I understand how click is compromising functionality. Click/hover, what difference?

I cant speak for everyone, but it seems that 99% of sites that have drop down menus are activated on rollover so to change it to click would totally go against the grain and probably make your website less functional to the average user who is so used to hover over drop down menus. I cant think of a single 'big' website that has a click to activate drop down menu, the simple fact of the matter is its an extra click. If you're going to click on the menu, you may as well just take them to that page rather than reveal a menu, choose an option and click again - seems like one too many clicks. I would go as far as saying there is a huge difference in hover and click in this type of example.