I would be very interested to know if the Jared and Brian have any thoughts as to what is the “right way” to use flyout menus.

The Kroger Co. recently redesigned their web site (www.kroger.com). You will noticed that the Kroger site provides fly out menus for the main navigation, however they also provide a “See All” category that reveals everything on their site. Haven’t seen this pattern in practice before, but it is an elegant way to assure that marketing has their homepage space for promotions while allowing visitors to quickly scan the site sub-categories.

I have to say, though, that I agree with a few a the previous posters. It would be very hard trying to convince designers not to use flyouts at all. I do however believe that they can be implemented in a more usable manner. For example,

If flyouts are thought to be needed, designers may want to make sure that …

1. …when they are activated that it will not obstruct other major action elements on the page, such as search boxes or buttons. I think that barnesandnoble.com displays a good example of that. Also, they seem to only use the flyout only as they see necessary, not for every single tab on the site.

2. …for the sites that seem to lock users into flyouts, provide a small close icon/link. I have to say I personally don’t like the ones that disappear on mouseout because if you make a very slight mouseout move, poof! the flyout is gone. There has been times when I have been stuck in a terrible loop trying to get to a lower level but the flyout is super sensitive & keeps disappearing on a slight mouseout.

3. …a maximum level standard could be set, probably no more than 3 levels down.

These are just a few thoughts, because both clutter (showing everything on the page) & the “quirky” flyouts are usability issues. We need to think of something to allow a happy medium.

I don’t imagine (famous last words) that OfficeMax just threw their flyout directory up there without testing it and even the lauded Netflix uses a flyout menu and we know that they test everything.

When 40-50% of large web sites are using flyouts you can imagine how hardit is to argue against them even if I do invoke your good name. Any thoughts on this?

By the way, for a really bad example of how to do flyouts, just go to GM’s web site.

Okay, there’s 3 long lists of links. Let’s be generous and say you’ve guessed the correct column. How do you find the trigger words in this mess of links? It took me a few seconds to realize the list is in alphabetical order which somewhat helps, but then they list multiple products on each line so that kind of defeats the purpose. For example, try to find “projectors” on staples.com.

Once, I finally find what I’m looking for and attempt to view the products, but I’m presented with a dialogue box asking me for my zip code. Why is this necessary just to view the products?! Same thing goes for doing a simple search.

Contrast this with officemax.com which you say is much more difficult to navigate. I find their alphabetical list of fly-outs are ingenious. You have something in mind of what you’re looking for so you know what the first letter is. After that it’s in alphabetical order. Finding projectors here is so simple and clicking the link goes right to the product list. How can you say Staples is better?

I have enjoyed your articles and studies immensely, but this kind of thing makes me question the credibility of them.

We also recommend to clients to have a “Home” button - Jared and crew — do you see similar behaviors?