Your menu has too many items

Menus rarely start too long. They grow one reasonable request at a time: a new service, a new team, a page someone wants to promote. A few years later the navigation has eleven items and nobody can remember why half of them are there.

Why more choice slows people down#

Hick’s law describes something we all feel: the more options there are, the longer it takes to choose one. Every item in a menu has to be read, understood and compared with the others. Add a few more, and the time it takes to decide grows. Some people simply pick the wrong one. Others give up and leave.

A short menu does the opposite. It tells visitors, at a glance, what your website is about and where to go next.

How menus grow#

Most long menus mirror the organization rather than the visitor. Each department wants to be visible, so each gets a top-level item. The result makes sense internally and very little sense to a stranger, who doesn’t know or care how your teams are arranged.

Name things the way visitors do#

Before cutting anything, look at the words. Menus full of internal language force visitors to translate before they can choose.

A good test: could a new visitor guess what is behind each word, without clicking? If not, the word needs to change.

Count, then cut#

Write down every top-level item, and next to each one note how often visitors actually use it. Your analytics and site search will tell you; if you don’t have data yet, ask the people who answer customer calls what people ask for most.

Aim for five to seven top-level items. “About us” and “Our story” become one page. “Services” and “Solutions” were the same thing with two names. “Careers” and “Partners” still exist; they simply move.

Where the rest goes#

Cutting the menu does not mean deleting pages. It means giving each one the right home.

• One level down: detailed services, individual industries and specific guides sit under their parent item.
• The footer: careers, partners, press and legal pages are found there by the people who look for them.
• Search: on larger sites, a visible search box catches anyone the menu doesn’t.

The logo already links to the home page on almost every website, which is why many sites no longer need a “Home” item at all.

Check it with real people#

You can test a new menu before building it. Write the proposed items on a card, then ask five people: “Where would you click to find out how much this costs?” or “Where would you look for a job here?” If most people pick the same item quickly, it works. If they hesitate or split between two, the names need another look.

A quick checklist#

• Five to seven top-level items, named in your visitors’ words.
• No two items that could mean the same thing.
• Everything else one level down, in the footer, or findable by search.
• Tested with five people before it goes live.