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Re: Mega menus - Headings or no heading?

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From: Bourne, Sarah (MASSIT)
Date: Oct 20, 2017 10:40AM

When Mass.Gov first used mega-menus (before ARIA menu or tab patterns could be used) we used headings within the drop-downs. But user testing found that they did not really help anybody, and that some AT/browser combinations included them all in the headings list even when "hidden", which was a terrible experience. Plain old nested lists turned out to be more than adequate.

We also provided separate pages for the mega-menu content, as a fall-back and for user preference. Headings were useful there, because it was the main content, so we kept those.

Very old test data to be sure, but it may still be valid. But the big lesson will always be valid: there's no substitute for user testing.

sb
Sarah E. Bourne
Director of IT Accessibility
Executive Office of Technology Services and Security (EOTSS)
1 Ashburton Place, 8th Floor, Boston, MA 02108
Office: (617) 626-4502
<EMAIL REMOVED> | www.mass.gov/eotss