[Support request] mobile menu dropdown userunfriendly

[John]

Hi,

No problem, just wanted to pass some feedback to you. The only thing i really dislike about GP is the way you need to “activate” a dropdown menu on mobile. You need to tap very near a dropdown symbol for the dropdown to appear. If you tap a few millimeters beside a symbol nothing happens. Why not allow the whole menu item which has a dropdown, to activate it ?
That is for a majority of the users something they would expect, especially on a mobile phone.
On desktop hovering over a menu items triggers the dropdown to be shown, while hovering over an item is far more easy than to tap a thick finger on a tiny symbol.

Best regards,
John

[Tom]

Hi John,

This is something I’ve played with before. One possible solution is using the first tap on mobile to open the sub-menu, and the second tap to go to the link. That might be a feature we add in the near future.

For now, the parent menu item would need to not a have a location for this to happen. For example, if it’s a custom link with # as the URL, the user can tap the entire menu item to open the sub-menu.

We do try to make the dropdown arrow as large as possible, but I agree it’s not super intuitive that the arrow is the part that needs to be tapped.

Really appreciate the feedback!

[John]

Hi Tom,

I have been tinkering with the Elementor Nav widget. On mobile it displays the exact behaviour i would like. The whole menu item activates the dropdown menu to appear.

Thanks,
John

[Tom]

Can you link me to an example?

[John]

This is a site i am working on, it is still a bit slow but i am not yet finished.
https://www.masblanc.nl/
It runs on GP and has an elementor nav menu widget.

Thanks,
John

[Tom]

Since those menu items don’t have URLs, GP will do the exact same thing on mobile (allow for the whole menu item to be tapped).

[John]

Is there a setting involved ?
This site https://www.masbernadis.eu/ has a GP menu (no elementor nav menu)
If you hit menu item “vakantiehuizen” (no URL attached) you need to hit the symbol.
Hitting anywhere on the menu item has no efect. At least on my mobile and tablet (both android)

[Tom]

Try giving that parent menu item this as the URL: #

[John]

Hi Tom,

Yes that works out for items without URL attached.
However the site with the elementor nav menu indeed had no URL attached, but also no # symbol in the URL field. So both situation remain incomparable.

In any case for items with URLs attached and a language switcher it does not work that way.
So i wonder what i will do. From a user perspective, it is strange if one menu item can be tapped everywhere and another menu item needs to tapped close to the symbol.
So i guess i will not use the # symbol, thinking that a uniform behavior of a menu is important for the experience of the user.

Thanks,
John

[Tom]

So if the menu item has a destination, what would the ideal situation be when the user taps the entire menu item?

[John]

Hi Tom,

I continued to use the elementor nav widget on a test site. It is work in progress don’t look at the design. Behaviourwise this menu acts on mobile like i expect it would. Maybe this is just a personal opinion. You can compare the two:
https://mijntestdomain.masbernadis.eu/blog/ GP with Elementor nav menu
https://www.masbernadis.eu/ GP with GP menu

Thanks,
John

[John]

BTW another thing when using the # sign is the behavior on a desktop.
When a pound sign is not used, when hovering over the menu item, the pointer of the mouse changes, indicating: there is nothing here. When using the pound sign, when hovering over the menu item, the mouse changes its pointer as if there is something there. Maybe a minor point but might cause confusion.

Thanks again,
John

[Tom]

Yes, it’s actually a bug within the slideout navigation that # is required – you should be able to open it with no link as well. The regular mobile menu should work like that.

It looks like the Elementor nav opens the sub-menu on first click, and goes to the location on second click if it exists. I like that functionality, so we’ll likely add it to GP soon.

[John]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for looking into this.
Have a good christmas and a good new year.

John

[Tom]

Thanks! You too 🙂

[Author]

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