What Is A Navigation Bar?

Date First Published: 26th July 2022

Topic: Web Design & Development

Subtopic: Web Design

Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty Level: 3/10

Learn more about what a navigation bar is in this article.

A navigation bar, also known as a navbar, is a design element of a webpage that acts as an organised list of links to other pages. Almost all websites contain a navigation bar at the top of every webpage and some contain side navigation bars, either on the left or right side to help visitors find pages similar to what they are currently viewing. These are also known as sidebars. Without a navigation bar, users would have a hard time finding the page they're looking for and would often have to click the back button on their browser a few times or manually type URLs, which is time-consuming. Navigation bars automatically take care of that.

A top navigation bar often consists of:

• The logo of the website (usually placed in the top-left corner).
• Links to important pages of the website, such as the homepage, about page, category pages, contact page, frequently visited pages, etc.
• A search bar that allows users to find what they’re looking for by entering specific words or phrases.
• Hoverable dropdown menus, containing links.

Note:

Navigation bars are usually part of the main website template, meaning that they appear on all (or nearly all) pages and are consistent throughout the website.

Responsive Navigation Bars

A lot of visitors browse websites using mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, so it is important that a navigation bar is responsive, meaning that it adapts to the screen size of the device. Most navbars now use a 'hamburger menu', which collapses when the screen is below a certain width and when visitors click on the three-line icon, a dropdown menu appears with the navigation links. Clicking on the three-line icon again will collapse the top navigation bar.

In the screenshots below, see how the navbar of Computerhelp4all automatically adapts to the screen size of the device and uses a 'hamburger menu'.

Sticky Navigation Bars

A sticky navigation bar, also known as a fixed navigation bar, is one that remains visible on webpages and stays in exactly the same position when the user scrolls up and down. The top navigation bar is 'glued' to the top of the webpage and does not disappear when users scroll down a webpage.

An example of a sticky navigation bar can be seen below in this gif. The top navigation bar remains on the page as the user scrolls down.

The advantages of a sticky navigation bar are:

• Users can navigate more quickly as they don't have to scroll all the way to the top of the webpage to find the navigation bar. This is useful for long webpages and greatly reduces the amount of scrolling time.
• For businesses, the branding is more visible as they could place their logo on the top navigation bar and users will see their branding throughout the time they are browsing their website.

• It can be a distraction - The permanent visibility of the top navigation bar can distract some users from their tasks and irritate them, especially if the navigation bar is quite wide and covers the main content of webpages. Even though it may not cause issues on desktop computers, it could take up a lot more valuable screen space on mobile devices that have a small screen.
• It can be complex to implement - Certain elements of a website may have to be repositioned so that the sticky navigation bar properly functions on the webpage.