For many, the three-stacked, neat-bar Hamburger menu icon is synonymous with responsiveness and modularity in web and mobile standalone/companion apps.
Most UX designers are beginning to think that hiding features off-screen behind a nondescript icon, side menu, or navigation drawer isn’t a great mobile design choice. In fact, it impedes engagement and visibility, in addition to cramming a ton of functionality into an app.
The UX design world is drifting towards other agile navigation schemes on single-purpose mobile apps. Thus, when the goal is to unravel core features and keep them in the users’ line-of-sight, ditching the hamburger button is a wise move.
Here’s why a Hamburger is not a Healthy Choice
Revelations surrounding the Hamburger menu’s use from many popular apps suggest that it doesn’t belong in standalone apps.
Product owners believe it’s unnecessary to put thought and care into the navigation taxonomy, which should otherwise be a quick and effortless exercise.
The Points that substantiate this include:
- Top-level navigation options and core functionalities are hidden behind the Hamburger and are forgotten by users or used less.
- It can be difficult to understand the taxonomy of your navigation and retain what the app features do.
- The placement of the button on the top left corner is not ideal for effortless browsing.
- Hamburger buttons need more taps to open up the feature you want, which makes them less efficient.
- A Hamburger menu interferes with your app design’s navigation patterns, forcing you to swipe back or across multiple screens to go back to where you started – the Hamburger Menu.
- Hamburger menus expand to cover notifications, messages, and new content on your app.
- Hamburgers ultimately lead to a drop in customer engagement rates and an increase in customer churn.
Healthy Alternatives
As natural language search options become more robust and conversational interfaces gain steam, do we need to take our focus away from the Hamburger menu?
With the advent of Machine Learning and AI-enabled solutions, we have better replacements for the Hamburger button.
The Tab bar consists of a row of persistently visible buttons at the bottom, sides, or the top of the screen to open different parts of the app. In addition to instant accessibility and discoverability, navigation options offer:
- The availability of multiple pieces of core functionality with one tap.
- Rapid switching between features without retreating to the home screen.
- A better view of notifications, messages, and app content.
- Toggle between the tab bar view (appear and disappear) with a tap or drag.
- Improved app speed and unbundled features.
- Scalability to include additional functionalities using a “More” button.
The Intuitive Natural Language Search buttons at the top line of your app can help in straightforward searches by typing in the conversational text by even non-tech users. What you get includes:
- Search keyword recommendations in a dropdown list for making the right available selection.
- Single tab, type, or click actions that return access to core features instantly.
- Complete visibility of notifications, messages, and new content.
- Improved speed of feature access.
- Flexibility to search for all app features.
- It simplifies information architecture.
It’s Time to take the Hamburger off the menu because…
Your engineers worked too hard building features for you to conceal them inside a menu icon. Playing hide and seek with the Hamburger menu icon to find features is annoying and deteriorates customer experience.
Finally, if people don’t remember what your app offers after trying to figure out what it offers, the purpose of a menu itself is defeated.
Radiant Digital can help you replace the Hamburger Menu with a befitting navigation scheme on your app. Call us today to learn more.
