There is no one-size-fits-all approach that can be copied and pasted into every template.

BTW — I can’t see why removing display:none (ie as written by the guy before me) should make a difference. Perhaps I’m missing something.

I’d like to add that I would definitely advise not to use display:none; or something similar in a drop down menu. If seen this causing problems numerous times, and removing the display:none; resolved 99% of these problems.

Once we get past the SEO issues, we all see how this impacts usability. Clients often want drop-downs because they heard that it is bad to make users click too many times. But a primary/secondary system (or breadcrumb trail for large e-commerce sites) can make it easy for users to get to most pages within 2-3 clicks.

Clients also say they want to make things easy by showing visitors all their options at once. But too many choices, be they on a cluttered home page or a drop down can be more confusing. I blogged about this awhile ago in Your home page is NOT your index; it’s your store front. If we have too many choices, then the easiest choice to make is to simply leave the site. Or if we use a drop down and try to cram it with small phrases, we may not be giving users enough info to know which option is right for them–so they keep having to click multiple options anyway. A primary menu can guide users to obvious topical areas from which they can more easily discern which links in the secondary menu will solve their problem.

Then of course drop downs can also impede accessibility, whether they are hard to follow if one doesn’t have steady hands (especially fly-out menus) or if they aren’t coded properly to support speech readers.

Drop-down menus are used like duct-tape to treat a symptom rather than the underlying navigation problem. But as you rightly point out they can be the cause of other problems too. Thanks for posting this here.

Would it be better just to have a main horizontal navigation bar with links and then sub navigation in a sidebar?

Hi Tom yes I think so.

I have a client with a online shop with 800+ products in it that is just about to get a revamp to Magento. And i was trying to think what was the best way to create a user friendly menu.

You mention about obscuring content with drop down menus. Does that apply to all dropdown menus, even ones just using css and ?

I have a clients website with 20 pages of which uses drop down menus with css. Only the home page has PR none of the other pages have PR. First time i used this menu so I can only assume its that.

Would it be better just to have a main horiztontal navigation bar with *a links* (edited becuase of wordpress formating)
and then sub navigation in a sidebar?

Thanks!

Tom