pull-down menus

So the big innovation for today is the DHTML pull-down menus at the top of the page. They only work in Explorer, and while I hate browser-specific enhancements, I did them for two reasons.

The first reason, of course, was to see if I could. I'm no JavaScript whiz (the code was ripped from microsoft.com.) so I needed to test my skills. But second, and more importantly, it makes an important UI point that I think gets ignored too often.

You see, all users of existing windowing operating systems are familiar with pull-down menus, yet almost no websites take advantage of this fact. I find this oversight inexcusable. One of the primary tenets of usability is consistency, to take advantage of knowledge the user already has. Since everyone knows menus, and a large percentage of browsers support them, sites oughtta have 'em.

'Nuff said.

I'm Anil Dash, and I've been blogging here since 1999, writing about how culture is made. Contact me at anil@dashes.com, at +1 646 833 8659, or at anildash on Twitter or IM. Find out more »

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