Navigation - Page 3

Navigation / 25 Oct 2011

The Ins and Outs of Dynamic Navigation Menus

All web designers go through phases struggling with creative ideas. It’s a natural part of the creation cycle, but it can become frustrating as you’re stuck on a website project for more than a few days. There isn’t any one-size-fits-all solution. But we can take a moment to analyze the design process for better solutions.

The main goal of any website is to lead visitors through your pages. This is accomplished via a navigation of some type, most commonly links. You can build tab bars, banners, block elements, or even float a nav menu off to the side.

Follow us in the guide below as we look through common trends in web navigation menu design. Both designers and developers have come up with tricks for expediting the process of building websites. And we hope to do the same by offering some unique tips for UI navigation.

CSS / 19 Sep 2011

Build an Animated Mario Block Navigation Menu With CSS3

Today we’re going to have some good clean fun by recreating the animated Mario Bros. question mark box with pure CSS3.

Along the way you’ll learn how to use several cool CSS3 technologies such as rounded corners, box and text shadows, and keyframe animations that work in both Safari and Firefox. Let’s jump in!

Navigation / 13 Jun 2011

Custom Web Design Techniques for Unusual Navigation

Page navigation is arguably the most important aspect to any properly constructed website. How easily your visitors can travel from page-to-page will affect the overall emotion and user interface of your website.

Great web designers always keep a surprise around every corner, and navigation menus can feature this big time. From fullpage to corner links I’ve shared a few great examples of unusual website navigation. Hopefully these ideas can incite a barrage of creativity within yourself and any future projects.

Layouts / 2 May 2011

iOS Usability Tips and Resources for iPhone and iPad Apps

The process required for designing mobile applications takes dedication and eye-numbing precision. Most graphics designers won’t spend their time in this area since pixel-perfect creation becomes tiresome quickly. And although mobile design isn’t for everyone it does hold a special place in the hearts of many.

For those out there interested to get started designing for mobile I’d recommend skimming a few of the ideas presented below. Previously we’ve discussed creative UI design techniques and offer solutions for iPhone and iPad designers.

CSS / 26 Aug 2010

Create a Fun Animated Navigation Menu With Pure CSS

In recent years jQuery has become the easiest and best supported way to implement simple animations online. JavaScript is exceptionally good at what it does and this article is in no way an argument against it.

However, CSS3 offers a glimpse into a possible future where basic animations are performed with straight CSS completely independent of scripting. Today we’ll take a look at how to use CSS3 to create a fun and unique navigation menu that uses @font-face, transforms and transitions.

CSS / 15 Jul 2010

30+ Innovative Icon-Based Navigation Menus

Here at Design Shack we love a good navigation menu. Lately we’ve noticed a trend arising around menus that use icons either exclusively in place of text or as a support of additional textual information.

Adding icons to your navigation can not only give you an aesthetic boost but actually make for a quicker visual read of the link. Here’s a collection of over thirty icon-based navigation menus that we found online. We’ll conclude with a few resources you can use to snag some free icons to create your own fancy menus.

CSS / 30 Apr 2010

30 Gorgeous and Versatile CSS Menus

Sometimes the navigation menu can be one of trickiest parts of the design process. This single area can set the tone for the usability of the entire site.

Today we’ll look at 30 inspiring examples of good menu design. Though many are pure CSS, others add in some images and/or JavaScript to increase the aesthetic and functionality.

Inspiration / 2 Feb 2010

20+ Examples of Fantastic Fixed-Position Navigation

A site with fixed-position navigation is one that never allows the user to lose site of the directory links as they scroll.

This simple trick makes for a site that is incredibly easy to navigate and is ideally suited for specific types of content. Below we’ll take a look at both the most common and the most unique uses of fixed navigation in web design.

Graphics / 5 Jan 2010

10 Techniques for a Fantastic Footer

A strong footer can leave your visitors with a lasting positive impression.

There are tons of creative ways to boost the cool factor of your footers by focusing on both form and function. Below you’ll find 10 simple ideas to inspire you towards footer greatness.

Accessibility / 30 Nov 2009

How to Build a Site With Keyboard Navigation: PSD to HTML

Today we’ll be looking at how to add keyboard navigation to a website using a few simple lines of JavaScript. First we’ll create a simple site theme in Photoshop and then transform it into a working website that uses keyboard functions to switch pages.

Navigation / 11 Nov 2008

Simple Hover CSS Menu

Our partner site, 13 Styles has just released a new CSS menu called “Simple Hover“. It is, as the name suggests, a simple affair, with a link description appearing when hovered over.

The menu is completely free to download, use and customize, contains no images (it’s all CSS) and should work in any browser or operating system you use.

Please let me know if you find any problems or would like to contribute a menu in the future.

Visit

Navigation / 29 Oct 2008

Creating a jQuery Dashboard

The ‘Dashboard’ feature on a Mac looks great, and the menu allowing you to add/remove widgets is a well designed feature. A similar effect can add a whole new level of functionality to a website, providing a simple slide-down menu at the top of a page. This tutorial will walk you through the process from beginning to end.

Before getting started, you may like to check out the demo, or download full source code here.