Large Hover Menu/Navigation Menu – Categorically Bad UX?
Due to feedback from a handful of customers that did not understand what our menu icons meant, a hamburger icon was removed from our navigation menu, this hamburger icon was used to expand the navigation menu.
In place of the hamburger icon action, a hover event now expands the navigation menu:
Hover does not imply intent:
- It is frustrating to hover over something and have it do something not intended.
- Especially frustrating, if the hover causes a sweeping full screen animation that darkens the entire website with an opaque black and expands a large menu.
- What if the user's intent was to click a menu icon that has become familiar?
Hovering over an icon, causing a tooltip to display is the standard solution for explaining what an icon is/does, yes?
Is it not fair and reasonable non-subjective to say that?:
This hovering menu nav is, unfortunately, just bad UI/UX. Hovering menus are an observable, industry standard bad practice, particularly as a solution to the problem we are trying to solve for our customers: describing what our menu icons mean.