20 Smart Web Navigation Examples That Follow The Latest Trends

Thursday, April 6, 2017

Navigation bars help visitors browse through the website with ease, thus having a well-designed web menu can make your website more accessible and user-friendly. Each site is unique and so are the various types of web navigation designs that you use.

This article examines 20 smart web navigation examples that follow the latest trends in web design. These wonderful web navigation examples can be used for various types of websites, from various niches.

These are some well-designed navigation menus that you can use to improve your website and make it more user-friendly. Some of these include fixed navigation, universal navigation, vertical sliding navigation, sub-navigation menus, single page dot navigation, carousels, hidden menus, and more. Each one has its uses and is perfect for a specific type of website. You just need to decide which of these designs will fit your website’s style and use it accordingly. So, let’s analyze some types of menus and see how you can improve your website design by using them as inspiration.

A fixed navigation is a great way of always having your menu in reach at all times. This can be the best solution for websites that have a lot of pages. Having your menu visible at all times, no matter how much you scroll down, can increase your website’s accessibility. If you are considering to use this type of menu, keep your menu light and make sure it doesn’t block big parts of your website’s content.

Another beautiful navigation solution is the vertical menu. There are not many websites that use this type of menu but, if you use it properly, this technique will help generate an impressive website that stands out. This type of menu navigation functions perfectly for full-width websites.

You can use a menu that is hidden at all times and access it only when necessary. This is similar to the menu icon from mobile responsive layouts. Although it may seem difficult to access, hiding your menu can be a great solution if you need the full screen to display your content.

A very useful navigation is the dropdown menu with a completely responsive layout. This will look beautifully for both desktop and mobile devices. With this great menu, your users can rapidly navigate through your website.

If you have a blog then you might want to consider having a carousel with previous articles. This appears at the top of your website and can lead visitors to navigate to the exact article, from within the carousel. The articles are permanently updated and have a nice design that will catch the visitors’ attention, making them spend more time on your website. This trend is becoming more and more popular for blogs or high-volume websites and it helps improve the user experience.

Also, if you are building a single-page design, you might want to consider a dot navigation type. This is a simple but very effective and useful navigation tool that has a professional look. This is a dotted menu has a sticky layout on the left or right side of the screen and helps you easily navigate through single page websites. The dots represent a different section of your website and to use them you just need to click on the dots and the page will automatically scroll up or down to that specific section.

Browse through this article and check out the rest of the navigation types we showcased here. Experiment and see which one is perfect for your current project and keep in mind other types of menus that you can use in your future designs.

However, make sure that your navigation menu is displayed properly and is fully functional from a mobile device. These navigations have responsive designs that automatically adapt to any screen size, but some may be more difficult to use on a smaller screen. So keep that in mind when choosing your nav menu type.

Browse through all of these and see which navigation type your website needs!