Navigation Models: Efficiency versus user preference

Navigation models… … how people find stuff David Humphreys … user preference vs. efficiency.

Who are we? Some of our clients

About David & Peak Usability
David Humphreys
Senior Usability Consultant
Peak Usability are Brisbane based
Usability & UX services & training

Our collective thoughts Our team had pretty strong opinions about a lot of nav models… … but we had no solid test data based on navigation models alone

The usual suspects Fly-out menus Dropdowns Index pages Mega-dropdowns Contextual dropdowns

Index pages – What we like
Supports user decision making – provides context

Index pages – What we don’t like Too much text! Too much scrolling! Operational Procedures under Policies & Procedures for QAS and QFRS. 1st of 84 pages only Related information or form appears as a link here which just looks like another link. Related information or form appears as a link here which just looks like another link.

Vertical drop downs Good for sites with frequent repeat users e.g. intranets Work well with index pages Needs a good IA & labels

Variant – Contextual vertical drop downs Provides more context to support user @iiNet Looks good, particularly the menus/left nav, 10 points for putting phone numbers right there in the 'contact' menu. - @ben_h

Flyout menus
Evil!
Users hate them!
“ that thing annoys me so much!”
So many issues
Don’t support users
Users will follow as far at they go
Don’t support natural mouse movement
Poor fine motor skills? No chance

Mega drop downs
We have never tested a site with them
EBay uses them & Amazon used to. Why?
Allow clearer chunking with subheadings
“ We know from user testing that mega drop-downs work” Alertbox 23 March 2009

Mega drop downs

Aims of the research
Meet our curiosity and provide evidence
Resolve office arguments
Which nav models:
Do users prefer ?
Is the most efficient to use?
Has the best completion rate?
These became our test measures

Approach
Worked with final year HCI students form University of Queensland
2 user groups using different user bases and website IAs
QLD RSL (9 users)
QUT Library (7 users)
Built ‘pure’ interfaces – ‘white sites’
The IA and the UI
Fewer variables
Tested 4 scenarios on each nav UI

Tool we recommended - Naview by Volkside

What was actually tested – RSL Group Drop downs Fly-outs

What was actually tested (RSL Group) Index pages “ Mega-menu” or contextual dropdowns

QUT Library prototypes for testing Drop downs Fly-outs

QUT Library prototypes for testing Index pages Mega drop down

Early results

Navigation model preference – RSL group
Users preferred mega menus (contextual dropdowns) for efficiency*
Landing pages were seen as inefficient*
Users preferred drop downs for ease of use
Fly-outs were seen as hard to use.
Source: UQ Research Group 1 Source: UQ Research Group 1

Single dropdowns & homepage landing pages were preferred
The mega dropdown menu was least preferred
Fly outs were better than expected
Navigation model preference – QUT group Source: UQ Research Group 2

Efficiency (time) - RSL group
Mega menus (contextual drop downs) were most efficient!*
Split the difference between dropdowns & landing pages
The fly-outs caused difficulty for this group

Efficiency (time) – QUT Library
The fly-outs performed well for this group
What was different?
Homepage style landing page also a strong performer
The two dropdowns were generally less efficient

Task completion rate – RSL group
Mega menus (contextual drop-down) performed the best*
Fly-outs the worst
Landing pages caused some problems*
Dropdowns performed marginally worse
Source: UQ Research Group 1

QUT Library task completion
Landing page was best performer
Followed by fly-outs
Seemed to be general difficulty with Tasks 3&4
Source: UQ Research Group 2

Thanks to our Research Students
Group 1 – RSL
Chin Zhun (Jerry) Ong
Jason Antony Marles
Chin Wai Ng
Jared Robert Mallett
Group 2 – QUT Library
Daniel Jon Dawson
Jacob Ryan Appleton
Jenny Spiers

A few caveats
We haven’t tested every nav model on the web
Not statistically valid
Not conclusive
We have more to do!
Raises more questions than it answers

Conclusions & Questions
Refine further research - landing pages and dropdowns together
Contextual drop downs are remarkably usable
Should we stop using fly-outs? Can you have a good one?
What about mega drop downs?
Was age a factor?

Which nav should I use on my site?
It depends!

Thank you David Humphreys [email_address] @peakusability @davemonkey http:// www.volkside.com/go/ozia /

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Navigation Models: Efficiency versus user preference

by Peak Usability on Oct 02, 2009

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Navigation Models: Efficiency versus user preference — Presentation Transcript