What are the most effective methods for wireframing a navigation menu?

1 Types of navigation menus

When creating your wireframe, there are various types of navigation menus to choose from, depending on your content, audience, and goals. A top bar is a horizontal menu that appears at the top of your screen, typically with a logo, a search box, and some links or icons. This type of menu is ideal for simple and minimalist designs as it conserves space and provides easy access to the main features. On the other hand, side bars are vertical menus that appear on the left or right side of your screen, usually with a logo, a collapsible or expandable list of items, and some icons or indicators. This type of menu is great for complex and hierarchical designs since it allows you to organize and display more information and options. Bottom bars are horizontal menus that appear at the bottom of the screen, usually with some icons or labels. They are well-suited for mobile and touch-screen devices as they provide better reachability and visibility for users. Lastly, hamburger menus are buttons that appear in the top left or right corner of the screen, typically with three horizontal lines. These are suitable for responsive and adaptive designs since they hide the menu items until users tap or click on them and then show them in a drawer or overlay.

2 Styles of navigation menus

When creating a wireframe, you can choose from a variety of navigation menu styles depending on your brand, tone, and personality. Flat style is simple and modern, with shapes, colors, and fonts without any shadows or gradients. Material style is dynamic and interactive, with geometric shapes, vibrant colors, animations, shadows, highlights, and transitions. Skeuomorphic style is nostalgic and familiar, with realistic shapes, textures, and effects like wood, leather, or metal. Each style creates a unique sense of simplicity and clarity (flat), depth and motion (material), or realism and familiarity (skeuomorphic).

3 Tools for wireframing a navigation menu

When selecting a tool for wireframing a navigation menu, you should consider factors such as functionality, usability, and collaboration. The tool should enable you to create, edit, and arrange menu items, as well as add icons, labels, and other elements. It should have a clear and intuitive interface that supports different types and styles of menus. Features like drag and drop, copy and paste, undo and redo, and zoom and pan should be included to enhance your workflow. The tool should also enable you to share, comment, feedback on the wireframe, export it in different formats, and integrate with other tools and platforms.

4 Best practices for wireframing a navigation menu

When wireframing a navigation menu, it’s important to follow some best practices to ensure that it is effective, user-friendly, and consistent. Firstly, you should align the menu with your users’ needs and expectations by researching and understanding their goals, preferences, and behaviors. Additionally, you should prioritize and categorize your menu items by identifying the most important and frequent actions and features that your users need. Lastly, you should test and refine your menu by validating it with real users and evaluating the results. You should then iterate and improve the menu based on the feedback, fixing any issues or gaps that you find.

5 Examples of navigation menus

If you're looking for inspiration, here are some examples of navigation menus with different types, styles, and tools: Netflix has a top bar menu with a flat style, a red logo, a white search box, and icons for profile, notifications, and settings. It also contains a secondary menu showing categories and genres of the content. It was designed using Sketch. Spotify's side bar menu has a material style with a green logo, black background, and icons and labels for home, browse, radio, library, and settings. It also has an expandable list of playlists and favorites. Figma was used to design this menu. Kindle's bottom bar menu uses a skeuomorphic style with a brown leather texture, icons and labels for home, library, store, and more. It also includes a hamburger menu with additional options and settings. Balsamiq was used to wireframe this menu.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?