Group Pages Under a Heading and Give Your Menu a Drop-Down
Pages can now belong to a section. A section appears in your menu as a heading with its pages underneath, which turns a long flat list into something a visitor can actually read.
When you need this
At about nine menu items. Below that, a flat menu is better and you should keep it. Above it, people stop reading the list and start scanning it, and a scan of fourteen items finds nothing.
Most actors will never need sections, and that is the correct outcome. This is for sites that have grown: several galleries, several projects, a teaching page, a shop, a blog.
Groupings that work
- Work: Reel, Photos, Credits, Projects.
- Voice: Commercial, Narration, Character, if you are a voice actor with several demos.
- Teaching: Classes, Coaching, Booking.
- About: Bio, Training, Press.
Two or three sections at most, and never a section with one page in it. A heading that opens onto a single item is worse than the item on its own.
The rule about clickable headings
A section heading can either be a page in its own right or purely a heading. Pick one and be consistent across the whole menu.
The mixed version, where two headings are clickable and one is not, is the most reliably irritating navigation pattern there is. People learn the behavior from the first one they try and are then wrong about the others.
On a phone
Sections become collapsible groups rather than hover menus, since there is no hovering on a phone. Everything is one tap away, and the compact menu described in mobile menus, improved means a two-level menu still fits without scrolling.
What it does not change
Addresses. A page moved into a section keeps its address, so nothing you have linked or printed breaks. Grouping is presentation, not structure.
The honest last word: if you are reaching for this, it is worth first asking whether you have too many pages. Nine complete pages beat fourteen where five are thin, which is the argument in the pages screen and in uncluttered design.
Related: menu order, external links, custom slugs.
Create your free actor website and keep the menu short for as long as you can.
