Users Decide First; Move Second

May 16, 2003

The use of DHTML navigation to bring content that is located deep within the site to the top in a site's Global Navigation is becoming increasingly more common (Example 1). Sites such as Crate & Barrel, MSNBC, and Cisco have employed this design element to conserve valuable space and bring all the options to the top with the aim of improving the user's experience.

^{Example 1: DHTML Navigation Crate & Barrel}

Unfortunately, a recent study by Jared Spool's User Interface Engineering (UIE) has found that the rate of user success in finding content they were looking for was dramatically decreased on sites that use DHTML and Drop Down navigation than those that did not.

This in no uncertain terms means that standard layouts with a good content hierarchy did a better job of getting users to content they were looking for and to valuable information they had no idea existed. At a very high level UIE observed that:

• Users decide what they are going to click before they even move the mouse.
  
  
  
• DHTML navigation can't help users decide where to click because the information isn't available to users when they are making their decision
  
  
  
• It isn't until a user has decided where to click that they see what the element has to say.
  
  
  
• In situations where DHTML navigation is employed, users became disoriented once they realized there was more information available to them in the drop down. The user stopped, re-evaluated the whole page, and also lost confidence that they were clicking in the right places.
  

UIE's study has particular relevance here as I am working on projects that begin to deal with complex content organization schemes. We are increasingly faced with trying to present content that is increasingly organized in a very hierarchical manner that are several clicks of the home page. One answer to dealing with this challenge has been an exploration of DHTML drop down menus. Yet another way to address these needs is to understand how our clients expect to find content/functionality and address those needs by providing multiple paths to what they want based upon who they are.