Why use a frozen (sticky) header on my website?

If you are looking for an optimal user experience on your website a frozen header works well...

People have short attentions spans as it is. We have been conditioned as web surfers to want things faster which may compromise our attention span even more. In order to find balance we at Blackthorn Publishing feel like a "department store" and "your website" should have a similar format. Here are a few reasons to "freeze your header"

* Keep in mind your header should never over power you web content or HERO image on your home page...

VERY SHORT LIST OF WHY FROZEN (STICKY) HEADERS ARE A GOOD THING !!

1. KEEPS OPTIONS AVAILABLE

If your wandering through a big name store in the electronics department and are thinking about buying shoes what would you do? (MULTIPLE CHOICE)

A. You can wander around aimlessly and hope you find the shoe department.

B. You can ask for directions and we know people simply do not like to ask for help

C. You can look up at the signs pointing to the departments available?

The obvious answer is "C".

IS there a chance that if you cannot find the shoe department right away you may leave the store? YES YES and YES!!

ITS THE SAME WITH WEBSITE NAVIGATION.

IF your on the home page of a website and scroll down and while looking at the site in some cases you may feel like you haven`t found what your looking for. What are the chances that you will scroll back up and take a look at the navigation menu. YOU WOULD BE SURPRISED AT HOW FEW.

Most people would leave the site right away. If you want to keep people on your site you should have a FROZEN HEADER.

2. A FROZEN HEADER GETS PEOPLE TO WHERE THEY WANT MUCH FASTER.

The normal behavior of someone on a website is as follows... They look at the homepage, scroll down a bit a make sure they are in the right place, they click something or they leave. Its that simple...

It only makes sense to have the option to view other areas or departments of your business readily available to them. This helps in increasing conversions and engagement. Your homepage may have a sale of a picture of something electronic but if i came for shoes I would hope to see a link to get me to the place where I can view what I want. Otherwise I am leaving!!!

3. BRAND BUILDING:

As well as providing advantages like quick and easy navigation, fixed headers also have brand building benefits. A website’s header will usually include their brand name and logo, so if you were to fix the header to the top of the screen, this would keep the branding of your website at the front and center of your users’ attention at all times. The more users see your branding (whether they are consciously looking at it or not) the more likely they are to remember it and recognize it in the future.

Citation: *https://bit.ly/3bf68xE

#blackthornpublishing #stickyheader #frozenheader #webdesign #webdesigntips #websitedesign