Navigation Should Guide, Not Hide

Why most public websites are better off without dropdown navigation

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Submenus look helpful, but they often create a false sense of usability.

They reassure internal teams that important pages are easy to find because more options are available from the main menu. But making more links available does not mean the user’s journey is clearer. In practice, submenus often add another layer of decision-making. The user has to open the menu, interpret the labels, compare the options, and choose a path before the page has had any chance to guide them. That might work for staff who already know the website structure. It is less helpful for users arriving with a need, a question, or a problem to solve.

In 2026, navigation has evolved. Hover is now the minority behaviour, not the primary interaction model websites should be designed around.

Users tap, swipe, scroll, search, skim, follow shared links, and land deep inside websites from search engines, campaigns, social posts and AI-generated answers. These behaviours have changed what people need from navigation systems. Navigation can no longer just expose hidden structure and expect users to discover the right path.

There is also a practical reason submenus became so common. They come from a time when the internet was slower and moving between pages carried more cost. If a user clicked into the wrong page, waited for it to load, realised it was not what they needed, and then had to go back and try again, that was a poor experience.

But websites and user expectations have changed. Pages are faster, search is better, and we have more ways to make content dynamic, contextual and responsive to the user’s needs. A well-designed page can now guide users forward without making them continually retreat to the main menu to choose again.

Once we design for touch, a submenu usually needs to become a toggle, and that creates a different experience with its own trade-offs. Once a submenu becomes a toggle, every submenu interaction becomes at least two clicks. The first click opens the menu. The second click selects the page. That matters because the top-level page is often where the journey should begin. It introduces the section, explains the options, and guides the user toward the right next step. When that page is treated as just another submenu item, the website makes the user work harder to reach the page that should be doing the onboarding.

This is where the issue becomes less about menu design and more about journey design. Today, there are better ways to support users as they engage with you online.

Better ways to support navigation

The better approach is not to remove submenus and leave users with fewer pathways. It is to move those pathways into places where they can be more useful.

A homepage can promote the most important sections of the site, not just list them in the header. A parent page can introduce a section and guide users to the right child pages. A content page can promote related pages at the point they become relevant. In-page navigation can help users move through a topic without forcing them back to the main menu.

These patterns are stronger because they happen in context.

Instead of asking the user to open a hidden menu and choose from a list, the website can present the next step when the user is ready for it. It can explain why a page matters, who it is for, and what the user might need to understand before they continue.

Search also plays a bigger role now. A good search experience can help users find specific content faster than a submenu ever could. Indexed content, synonyms and semantic search allow users to search in their own language, not just the organisation’s menu labels. That matters because users do not always know what something is called. They may know what they need, but not where it lives. They may describe a service, form, resource or process differently from the organisation. Smarter search helps close that gap.

Together, these patterns create a more useful navigation system.

The main menu provides the primary pathways. The homepage promotes the highest-value destinations. Parent pages guide users into each section. Content pages promote related next steps. In-page navigation supports movement within the current journey. Search helps users find specific content using their own words.

That is a much stronger model than expecting a submenu to do all of that work.

When submenus can work

Submenus are not always wrong, but most websites are better off without them. They can work for familiar, repeat-use audiences, such as staff portals, member portals, documentation sites, product dashboards, or systems where users return often and learn the structure over time.

That is not the same as most public websites. Most public users are not returning every day. They have not learned the structure. They arrive with a need, a question, or a task, and they need the website to guide them.

Submenus can also work when they act as a preview of the next page rather than a hidden filing cabinet. In that case, the submenu gives the user a small, curated set of meaningful pathways with enough context to help them decide. But if the submenu needs to explain the section, it is worth asking whether that explanation belongs on the page instead.

A submenu can also be useful when the top-level item is not intended to be a destination. For example, if “Resources” is only a grouping label and not a page users need to visit, using it to open a menu may be reasonable. But again, that is a compromise. It only works when the organisation is comfortable saying that the top-level item is not a meaningful page. If the section deserves an introduction, explanation or guided entry point, a parent page is usually the stronger choice.

So yes, submenus can work. But for most public websites, the threshold should be high.

They should reduce effort, not just expose more structure. They should help the user make a faster decision, not ask them to decode the organisation’s content model.

For most public websites, the better default is still no submenu.

Use the main navigation for primary pathways. Use landing pages to introduce sections. Use in-page navigation to support the journey. Use related links to move users forward. Use search to help people find specific content.

A submenu should only survive if it does something those patterns cannot do better.

The real issue is not the submenu

The real issue is decision-making.

Submenus often appear when an organisation is trying to avoid prioritising. Everything feels important, so everything gets placed into the menu. That might satisfy internal stakeholders, but it does not always help users.

Good navigation requires choices.

It requires the organisation to decide what the main pathways are, what each section page needs to explain, and how users should be guided once they arrive.

No-submenu navigation forces those decisions earlier.

It helps prevent the main navigation from becoming a dumping ground. It encourages better landing pages. It improves touch-first usability. It reduces hidden complexity. It supports users who arrive from anywhere, not just the home page. It also makes the website easier to govern because the menu is no longer expected to carry every content decision.

No-submenu navigation is not about making a website smaller. It is about making the journey clearer. It shifts the work away from hidden menus and into visible, purposeful page design. It asks the organisation to guide users rather than expecting them to discover the right path through a dropdown.

That is why no submenus often makes a better website.

Not because dropdowns are impossible to use. Not because every website should remove them without thought. But because, in many cases, submenus create a false sense of usability while adding friction, hiding priority and pushing decision-making onto the user.

A clearer website does not expose every pathway at once, It helps people understand where they are, what matters, and what to do next.

Want to know more?

If you want to explore this further, these references are a useful place to start.

Nielsen Norman Group explains how hidden navigation can reduce discoverability, slow users down, and make tasks feel harder.

W3C’s guidance on fly-out menus is a helpful accessibility reference for understanding why submenus often fall short, and the extra considerations needed to make them accessible across mouse, keyboard and assistive technology use.

UXPin’s article on advanced search shows how better search experiences, including synonyms, filters and semantic search, can help users find content without relying on deep menu structures.

The U.S. Web Design System’s in-page navigation guidance is a practical example of moving navigation support into the page, where it can help users understand and move through content in context.

Google Material Design’s navigation guidance is also useful for thinking about navigation as movement, orientation and decision support, rather than simply exposing a website structure.

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