MSNBC Resolves Dispute Over Fly-Out Menus

Published: 3/24/2006 | Updated: 3/24/2006 | Discuss

I have just noticed how MSNBC settled the conflict of opinions on the fly-out menus.

Drop-down, slide-down, fly-out, etc, menus can help remove clutter and group relevant news into their own dimension, although it’s always difficult to maintain balance. MSNBC clearly goes overboard with their side menus: they are an ugly information dump rather than a compass.

Nonetheless it’s nice to see MSNBC acknowledged divided opinions, developed a humble hack and posted an explanation. Nice job!

Speaking of balance. Take a look at the new design of my hosting company, CrystalTech. When you mouse over, say, Support you cannot click it—it is not an actionable item. At the same time, Order Now is an actionable item. Confusing. Also, did they ever try navigating a triple-nested menu with a touchpad?

I have no research data to back me up, but, to my taste, dropdown menus with the top-level items that you can’t click simply suck.

1 Tim Hibbard | Friday, March 24, 2006 at 3:49 PM

I agree that drop down menus that have a non clickable top level item suck. they suck big time...how hard it is to create another page for that item?

2 Chris Lienert | Sunday, March 26, 2006 at 5:45 PM

Technically the idea is to reduce the number of clicks required to reach something but the result is often more difficult navigation. As a news site, I can't see why they're unable to follow other good examples such as the NY Times or the Sydney Morning Herald.

MSNBC Resolves Dispute Over Fly-Out Menus

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