You probably know already that UI design doesn’t always turn out to be the way it was initially planned. Many people choose a type of UI design or a specific layout that eventually starts failing from all points of view. Menus collapse, loading times are slow, JavaScript is excessive and so on.

This is normal, considering that new trends emerge in the web design world very often and people need to start incorporating these trends into their projects to please their clients. The trend that is in the center of attention now is called the mega menu. You can only understand the concept after you’ve seen some mega menu examples and you learn how to create a fully responsive one by yourself. The main goal of website design is to make the experience as pleasant as possible for the user, regardless of the means used.

Understanding what a mega menu is

Wondering what is a mega menu and what makes it so popular in web design nowadays? The mega menu, also written as megamenu, is a 2D expandable menu that is usually built on multiple levels. This type of menu is most often selected by retailers, who have a lot of product categories they need to include in the menu. Best Buy and Amazon are just two of the retailers whose mega menu examples you should check out.

These types of menus are very useful for any website that has a lot of pages and subpages to list. If these pages were listed on a single, dropdown menu, the website would look ridiculous and it would be impossible to navigate on it. This is where mega menus step in. All categories will be visible at the same time, even on mobile versions of the website. It can be placed both vertically and horizontally, depending on the website’s theme and size. Hovering, clicking or tapping on a category will expand the menu further.

A few mega menu examples

Columbia

This website includes a site menu where you can select from a large number of countries. The map of that country is also available.

Callaway

From various menus on the web, Callaway stands out from the crowd through its sophisticated look. The men are a drop-down one and include all the main categories of the website.

Bestore

The famous brand selected a drop-down menu for their website, as it is perfect for such a big eCommerce website.

Northern Tool and Equipment

This website merges great web design with the functionality of amazingly responsive mega menus. The mega menus on this website include features that can help users find what they are looking for rapidly.

The White House

The mega menu on this website includes many categories and subcategories. Because of the large number of posts that such websites have, this feature is paramount for satisfying website navigation.

Biker

From all drop-down menu examples, Staples seem to be one of the best. It has a short description of each category and it also includes shortcuts to the eCommerce store’s most important services.

Clothing

Wal-Mart is a colossal brand that sells thousands of products. There’s no wonder why they need a mega menu to handle all that bulk information. The navigation is smooth and intuitive.

Toys R Us

In terms of website menu designs, Toys R Us definitely earned its place in this list. Their menu also includes graphic elements that help users find what they need even faster.

HiFi

In some cases, mega menus might not look exactly good, which means they have to be stylized to fit the website’s theme and overall design. Build.com is the perfect example to see how a mega menu can take up only a small part of the screen when using it. It has icons instead of text and it has hover actions that give users more details. Practicality and good looks – all in one single responsive menu.

Moosejaw

Moosejaw also has a dropdown menu that stands out from the rest of the website’s content, so that it encourages clients to browse through their categories and subcategories to find exactly the product they were looking for. Moosejaw is a good example of how heading and subheadings separate categories and subcategories properly.

Manicure

Estee Lauder is a cosmetic brand that definitely has a lot of product categories to list. This is why they selected a mega menu for the deed.

Quincy Compressor

When it comes to websites menu design, Quincy Compressor needs no advice. It is an industrial eCommerce website that has challenging content to organize. The many pages of products wait to be categorized and subcategorized to later be placed in a mega menu. Industrial products are very difficult to organize because of their number and names, so the only menu that could include them all is a mega one.

Quincy Compressor separated their products into three categories: popular, resources and industry-served. Each category has subcategories. At the bottom of the menu, customers can see an option to download the product catalog each month. The menu serves all the interest a user would have on such a website.

Reading Truck Body

This is the best website menu design example that you need to see if you want to understand how menus influence the way a website looks. Based on the theme that a website has; the colors and personality of the whole website will influence the user experience. A well-incorporated mega menu can totally change the way a user navigates on the website, making him return or not.

Pharmacy

Another responsive mega menu design is represented by Quiksilver, which introduces a beautiful dropdown menu that has plenty of information to give to users who enter the website. All information can be found in one single place, which is one of the great features that only a mega menu can offer.

Lowe’s

Lowe’s has a dropdown menu as well, and it is responsive and beautiful looking. Visitors seem to really enjoy the way Lowe’s website is built. See for yourself and gather the much-needed inspiration.

Lucky Brand

You probably saw the Lucky Brand website and the way they used colors and typography to separate their content. Quickly browsing the website’s content is a true pleasure, considering the many animation effects that take place if you do certain actions. Consider following this website’s design if you want to achieve a good content hierarchy while maintaining the pleasurable aspect of the website’s theme.

Sears

Sears has a mega menu with multilevel categories that makes navigating on it very easy. The menu also contains links and images for each subcategory that visitors can access.

Action Envelopes

As you may have seen in the case of other websites, the Action Envelopes one features a mega menu, but it is structured in two different colored parts. The main part is represented by products, which contains filtering subcategories. This unique structure of the mega menu helps users find what they are looking for within seconds. Action Envelopes used their mega menu as a personality or branding marker.

Blacks Outdoor Clothing

Blacks Outdoor Clothing is a clothes retailer that has a lot of partner brands. All these brands must be listed within the menu and this is why they opted for a mega menu. For each brand included in the list, there is also an icon that describes it and several subcategories that the user might find useful. It is a minimal mega menu that doesn’t make the design of the website too crowded.

Conclusion

Selecting one from all these mega menu examples might be tricky, so give yourself some freedom and come up with one that fits your company the best. A mega menu has to look good and act user-friendly at the same time. Besides that, it’s up to you what you choose.