Comments on: Dropdown low down

By: Michal Suchanek

Michal Suchanek — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 14:09:47 +0000

Very nice list.

It seems that these days the dropdown menus are in a state that you can include them without hindering the usability of your web page too much, and some people would want them for one reason or another.

They may be really nice shortcuts if they work as expected in your browser and you can handle a pointing device with ease. Well made menus these days can be even usable by novice users that are not so proficient at pointing exactly where they want on the screen.

The menus pack more links at smaller screen space at the cost of larger pages and somewhat trickier navigation.

By: Internetagentur

Internetagentur — Tue, 05 May 2009 12:29:05 +0000

Thank you, this has me very helped.

By: A Selection of Advanced CSS Topics

A Selection of Advanced CSS Topics — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 02:01:32 +0000

[…] John Faulds offers an excellent comparison of currently available drop-down menu methods in his article, “Dropdown low down .” This is an excellent place to get the big picture on what the issues are with the currently […]

By: Paul

Paul — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 17:57:21 +0000

Great job, would like more websites like this: complete, to the point

By: Keyboard Support: Mysteries Unveiled - Beast-Blog.com

Keyboard Support: Mysteries Unveiled - Beast-Blog.com — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 03:03:54 +0000

[…] and adding keyboard functionality… it was only by luck that I was sent to Tyssen’s Drop Down Low Down which, a bit down the page, Matthew Carroll has a pretty normal Suckerfish menu but with just a bit […]

By: Kentanes

Kentanes — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 00:49:40 +0000

Regarding the issue brought up by Keith, I have noticed it and consider the only remedy to choose what effects happen on focus (and active with IE). When clicked, it still has keyboard tab focus after a backpage or backspace return. If you eliminate it altogether, you eliminate keyboard access.

By: Keith Wicks

Keith Wicks — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:15:09 +0000

I've not got any market research, but that's why I just used the vague term "plenty". How much it actually bugs people will vary of course. I find it surprising that you have so little concern on for this flaw however. At the end of the day, we're talking about a user interface element which, in a very visible way, isn't functioning entirely correctly (a dropdown should always retract after use), and is a potential minor annoyance or distraction to the user. To me that's reason enough for concern. On the positive side, if malfunctioning dropdowns are as widely accepted as you seem to imply, at least my own pages won't be too odd-out for having the same flaw. I'm not sure that's something I should be too happy about though! It would be interesting to hear other people's views on this. But anyway, thanks for the response.

By: John Faulds

John Faulds — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 01:03:25 +0000

Plenty of them will find it visually ugly

Is this just you projecting your view onto that of others, or do you have evidence to back up this statement?

I’ve never had any feedback that people find this effect ugly, and in the absence of such feedback, I’m disinclined to believe it’s an issue. You’re the very first person I’ve heard who has a problem with it.

By: Keith Wicks

Keith Wicks — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:57:34 +0000

Although it doesn’t reduce functionality, the reason to be concerned about it is that it’s a very visible and quite ugly glitch on your page. Most users are likely to attribute that glitch to you, the designer, even if it’s actually due to some technical limitation beyond your control. To them your page is a bit broken, and the user consequently has a bit less respect for it. You may not find the glitch disturbing yourself, but isn’t it your users that should be your guiding concern? Ok I know they’re a bunch of pests we could do without, but I think they’re here to stay! Plenty of them will find it visually ugly, and also an annoyance because they have to click or mouse somewhere to get the offending dropdown to finally hide again.

As for any of the menus here getting fixed (made fully ‘tidy’), I’m not even sure that’ll be possible. I’m relatively new to site design, but perhaps there really are some current technical limitations that make it either problematic or impossible.

By mentioning the issue on your excellent round-up page here, I hope it might at least get seen and given some consideration, if it’s indeed something that has so far largely been ignored.

By: John Faulds

John Faulds — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:02:55 +0000

Sorry, Keith, but that’s not an issue I believe is worth troubling about.

Does it reduce the usability of a site or prevent access to any part of it? The answer is no, and that’s always my primary concern when considering functions of navigation.

(On a personal note, I don’t believe that effect to be that ‘untidy’ either; it just doesn’t worry me.)

The fact that, as you say, you’ve found no comments about it would suggest that perhaps others are of the same opinion.

I’m not responsible for any of the dropdowns listed in this article, so if you believe strongly enough about it that it should be rectified, you may be better off contacting one or some of the authors directly.