Unsticky your navs 10/15/13

“Please, publishers, lose your vanity, and kill the sticky navs. If I’m reading a story on Slate, have no need whatsoever to be reminded of the headline at all times — in extra-bold all-caps, to boot. […] If you give me my browser window back, I’ll be much more avid, and much less resentful, when it comes to consuming your content.” – Felix Salmon

Sticky navs¹ are trendy right now², but you should carefully consider whether or not to to use them. Sticky navs take up valuable screen space – especially on mobile devices – while adding little functional value. After all, if your users scrolled down the page, they can certainly scroll up to use the navigation³.

A nav is sticky when it stays pinned to the top of the page even after you’ve scrolled down. For an example, check out this Businessweek article or this poorly made animated GIF. ↩
I’ve been asked to implement them on most sites I’ve recently built. ↩
Users know how to scroll a window, they just don’t like doing it too much. ↩