Menu
- Maximum of six main menu items across the top
- Approximately a maximum of six sub menu items in a dropdown
- Every page on the site doesn't need to be on the menu
- Should be able to organize every non-menu page on the site under a main and submenu item (example path: main menu item>sub menu item>page not on menu)
- Menu should not contain any duplicate links
Menu Item Name
- Approximately 1-3 key terms, users see about two words when scanning list items. (resource: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/first-2-words-a-signal-for-scanning/)
- Avoid using “/” or “,” in the menu name
- Use topic-based main menu names (describes the content on the page it links to)
- Figure out what users are looking for and use menu names that are familiar and relevant as opposed to cute made-up words or internal jargon. (resource: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/menu-design/)
- Avoid using format based main menu names such as "videos", "files", "photos", etc.
- Avoid using audience based main menu names (describes who should click the link)
Menu Item Link
- Text in link should mostly match the menu item name
- Omit words like "and", "or", "but", "of", "the", "a", etc.
- Should link to a page on the site, not a document file or different site (exception: when a parent site menu item links to child site and the child site displays the parent site in its breadcrumbs for example when using an organic group site configuration)
- Use all lowercase letters
- Separate words with a hyphen
- Spell out words, don't truncate or abbreviate them
- Avoid using menu items as anchor links (links that jump you down to a specific place on a page)