Side bar menu, good or bad idea.

[A_Fotografy]

Hi everyone,

I have a little problem.

Not that long ago I launched my new site. Everything seems ok, but I'm not sure if it was clever idea to have  additional side bar menu option. I wanted relevant content to be accessible very easy without dropdown in main menu.

It looks ok on desktop, but we have a problem with mobile devices. Even main menu is a bit confusing and sidebar at the moment is at the bottom of each page. When I placed it on top of the page, we had problem with tablet users as it is showing side menu with blank page and content is almost below the fold.

I have a tool installed called usability tools and it shows how visitors are using my site.

The hard bit is that nobody on mobile devices are using sidebar and that means people visit one page and leave without exploring any additional resources.

Me and my developer are discussing that maybe we should have two main menu bars instead of sidebar, but I have no idea how this looks in real life.

What is the best practises for sidebar menus these days? Maybe we have a designer here who can help me with this and do some work?

My site is https://a-fotografy.co.uk/

Thank you for all help in input in advance.

Regards,

Armands

[EGOL]

The little box you talking about.

Make a small table or div and float it to left.

When you say duplicate menu at the bottom, do you mean main menu or sidebar menu.

You can do either.  Anything you want.

[A_Fotografy]

Ok I will wait to get it through. We can have a chat about this.

Thanks,

A

[Mobilio]

Yup. Phone will be real and have confirmation to avoid incidental clicks.
No - adding subcats into menu will make navigation heavy for mobile users. Click hamburger, click category, click subcategory, click sub-subcategory. No way someone to nagivate there.

I sent you mine contacts on your site where we can discuss "boring details".

[A_Fotografy]

I love idea of including phone as I get mainly people calling me anyway. But if that would be active phone number which dials straight away, that could be cool.

Yes we have hamburger now. Let me get this right as I think we think the same. Are you recommending to add those subcategories ( gallery, prices, partners ) to the main existing hamburger, yes? And then make whole menu sticky, yes?

Thanks for your help.

A

[Mobilio]

Well everything is doable - but remember about users first.

So - lets imagine that i'm looking for someone to be official photograph of mine wedding or engagement or baby photo session. So first if i look is text "i'm photograph that can make your special events memorable...". Ok - you have such text. Second is gallery, 3rd some reviews and pricing. Now in mobile design people just can't reach to them and you get visits with 1 page per session. Right?

That's why i think that "Hamburger Gallery Partners Price" could work. Hamburger is actual menu as now - just need to make it sticky with "Gallery Partners Price". WHY?

Let's assume that i'm on mobile and browsing for "Edinburgh wedding photographer". I see results (term is SERP - search engine result pages) and i click on your site. So i start reading your texts. And as i scroll down to them - sticky menu appear on top. And users can click on them - in result you can have user convinced that "here is the man". So they can give you a call or fill contact form.

2nd Idea - place somewhere in sticky menu "phone" icon that will be linked to your phone using "callto:here-is-your-phone-number". So give user another way to book you.

[A_Fotografy]

Hi Peter,

Just looked up what means hamburger and I'm good now

So for my mobile site.

Do you think it could make sense to make 3 level menu. So main menu, sub category and then gallery, price etc menu?

Or Make main menu sticky and then hamburger with sub category and gallery, price etc menu?

Here is another thought I had,

What if I could make main menu as hamburger. Like I have now. Main menu and subcategory, but make sticky menu on top for side bar options ( prices, gallery etc?)

Do you think that could be doable?

Thanks Peter.

[A_Fotografy]

Thanks Peter,

Now you are talking far too clever for me What is hamburger icon?

Also how do you do A/B testing for the site. Do you make two sites?

I'm not a developer, but can pass this onto him. Or maybe I can hire here to get this job done.

Thank you Peter.

[A_Fotografy]

Hi Egol,

Thanks for reply. I'm trying to link up relevant pages with hypertext.

The little box you talking about. Where ddi you see that? Did you use tablet or phone? I guess it might be that widget box you talking about. I'm taking that away and will place as an image in actual content.

Good advise about menu of related articles.

When you say duplicate menu at the bottom, do you mean main menu or sidebar menu. At the moment I have only sidebar menu at the bottom.

Thank you Egol.

[Mobilio]

Skeleton have JS to NOT include sticky menu on mobile. But was nice example about mine idea and first that i remember quick during writing this comment.

Second idea is sticky menu with "Hamburger_icon Gallery Partners Price" for mobile and normal (just as now) for desktop. This probably can skip confusing users about menu and hierarchical structure of your website.

But as i said - A/B testing is needed.

[A_Fotografy]

Thank you for advise Peter.

I just looked at the sticky option. The skeleton you mentioned. I opened page on my mobile, but I didn't see the main menu. It was on my desktop, but not on the mobile so I'm not sure how does it work on mobile. Especially with two menus.

Does it mean that I would have two sticky menus on top? Like my main navigation one and one with secondary menu options?

I like idea of sticky, but just need to make sure that I don't confuse user

[EGOL]

The hard bit is that nobody on mobile devices are using sidebar and that means people visit one page and leave without exploring any additional resources.

Go to a few of your pages and find opportunities to link to your own content.

• As the hypertext that wikipedia overuses in some people's opinion.
• In little boxes that float to the left side of your mobile pages (use images and text that elicit clicks)
• As a large menu of related articles at the bottom of your page (look at the provocative images presented in the Outbrain, Taboola, and similar widgets - you don't have to be nasty or naughty like some of them - there are many other ways to earn a click)
• in a search box at the bottom of your article and invite readers to use it
• you don't need a sidebar to entice people to visit another page... just show them what you have that is relevant, what is popular, what is new, what is outrageous - depending upon your audience.
• duplicate your menu at bottom of the page

[Mobilio]

And this is the point where you clearly can see that RWD (responsive web design) isn't "one-size-fit-all" solution.

You have few choices but all are weird - double menu, hamburger + kebap menu, sticky menu on left, etc. But as i said this is weird. And only A/B test can show how they works.

I think that best in your case is to try sticky menu on top. One of best example is here:
http://getskeleton.com/
but you need to watch this on desktop. When you scroll down you can see that "Intro Code Examples More" is sticky on top. In your site you need to make changes to "Gallery Partners Pricing". This menu can be sticky even for desktop. This will bring more size in width for main content.

As i said - only A/B test can show who's right. Because all double menus have better navigation but in reality confuses user with "paradox of choice".