aboutsummaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/build/posts/hamburgers/index.html
blob: b042a5aed5b8289b59144445b0084c7f0ed1e91c (plain)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
	<meta charset="utf-8">
	<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
	<meta name="color-scheme" content="dark light">
	<link rel="icon" href="data:,">
	<title>Stop Using Hamburger Menus (Sometimes)</title>
	<link href="/atom.xml" type="application/atom+xml" rel="alternate" title="Atom feed for blog posts" />
	<link href="/rss.xml" type="application/rss+xml" rel="alternate" title="RSS feed for blog posts" />
<style>*{box-sizing:border-box;}body{font-family:sans-serif;line-height:1.33;margin:0 auto;max-width:650px;padding:1rem;}blockquote{background:rgba(0,0,0,0.1);border-left:4px solid;padding-left:5px;}img{max-width:100%;}pre{border:1px solid;overflow:auto;padding:5px;}table{text-align:left;width:100%;}.footnotes{font-size:90%;}</style>
</head>

<nav>
	<a href="#menu">Menu &darr;</a>
</nav>

<main>
<h1 id="stop-using-hamburger-menus-sometimes">Stop Using Hamburger Menus (Sometimes)</h1>
<p>2023-05-05</p>
<p>I recently <a href="https://fosstodon.org/@tdarb/110264983268249599">tooted about my hatred of website hamburger menus</a> which was met with a surprising amount of support from other users. It seems like most people <em>don&#8217;t actually like hamburger menus</em>. So why do we, as developers, keep using them in our products and designs? Is it our only option? Or is it because we have become conditioned to expect it?</p>
<h2 id="the-core-problem-with-hamburger-menus">The Core Problem with Hamburger Menus</h2>
<p>The biggest headache when coming across these menus on the web is the complete disregard for <strong>accessibility</strong>. Performance and solid user experience is almost always thrown out the window in favour of a &#8220;prettier&#8221; design layout. You might have made the overall design &#8220;cleaner&#8221; for your users, but you sacrificed all usability to do so.</p>
<p>I challenge you to visit a webpage or web app with a hamburger menu and try to navigate solely with your keyboard and screen-readers (or better yet - try these screen readers on mobile!). Within seconds you will find a whole mess of issues. Now try the same test with JavaScript disabled&#8230; Yikes.</p>
<h2 id="but-i-have-no-choice">&#8220;But I Have No Choice!&#8221;</h2>
<p>I see this argument pop-up frequently when taking to design leaders or developers. I call bullshit on this excuse. You <em>absolutely</em> have the choice to avoid implementing bad designs - that&#8217;s your job! Either you&#8217;re not fighting hard enough against those pushing for it, or you&#8217;re just trying to build a &#8220;pretty&#8221; portfolio.</p>
<h2 id="best-alternative-sitemap-footer">Best Alternative: Sitemap Footer</h2>
<p>So instead of just whining about hamburger menus, I will actually offer up a solid replacement: <strong>sitemap footers</strong>. Simply place all your website&#47;application links into the bottom footer and link directly to them from your header. Be sure to also include some form of &#8220;Top of the page&#8221; link for quick access back to the initial scroll view.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s it. There is nothing else you need to do for this to <em>just work</em>. It might sound oversimplified and that&#8217;s because it is. Looking for an example? This very website utilizes this technique, so give it a spin! Try using just your keyboard or even better - use a screen reader. Disable JS and CSS and watch it work flawlessly still.</p>
<p><strong>Pros:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Keyboard navigation accessible</li>
<li>Excellent screen-reader support</li>
<li>Works on all devices&#47;screens by default (no media queries!)</li>
<li>Stays out of the way until called upon (UX goodness)</li>
<li>Requires ZERO CSS or JavaScript</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Cons:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Footer can become large with many links (although I <em>really</em> don&#8217;t see this as a big deal)</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="no-excuse">No Excuse</h2>
<p>There really is no excuse to still be using hamburger menus. Users expect them to be present only because we as designers have conditioned them think that way. They deserve a better experience on the web. The <em>least</em> we can do is improve something as simple as website navigation&#8230;</p>
<footer role="contentinfo">
    <h2>Menu Navigation</h2>
    <ul id="menu">
        <li><a href="/">Home</a></li>
        <li><a href="/projects">Projects</a></li>
        <li><a href="/uses">Uses</a></li>
        <li><a href="/wiki">Wiki</a></li>
        <li><a href="/resume">Resume</a></li>
        <li><a href="/colophon">Colophon</a></li>
        <li><a href="/now">Now</a></li>
        <li><a href="/donate">Donate</a></li>
        <li><a href="/atom.xml">RSS</a></li>
        <li><a href="#top">&uarr; Top of the page</a></li>
    </ul>
    <small>
        Built with <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~bt/barf">barf</a>. <br>
        Maintained with ♥ for the web. <br>
        Proud supporter of <a href="https://usefathom.com/ref/DKHJVX">Fathom</a> &amp; <a href="https://nextdns.io/?from=74d3p3h8">NextDNS</a>. <br>
        The content for this site is <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">CC-BY-SA</a>.<br> The <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~bt/bt.ht">code for this site</a> is <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~bt/bt.ht/tree/master/item/LICENSE">MIT</a>.
    </small>
</footer>