Friday, April 15, 2016

navigation - Should breadcrumb menus ever be two lines?


Should a long breadcrumb menu ever spill into a second line? If so, what are some good examples of this done right so that it looks decent? If not, what are other solutions that can solve the length problem?


The only things that I can think of are to shrink the text or remove some of the options, but I'm not a big fan of either.


Edit:


Is displaying the current page title in the breadcrumb redundant? Consider:


Most breadcrumbs are similar to the following:


Home > Tools > Blue Widgets > Acme Super Blue Widget #1209930942348


However, below the breadcrumb, the page title is often displayed as a heading:


Acme Super Blue Widget #1209930942348


Would there be any benefits or drawbacks to omitting the page title from the breadcrumb and replacing it with the text, 'Current Page'?


Home > Tools > Blue Widgets > Current Page

Acme Super Blue Widget #1209930942348



Answer



I don't see a huge problem with this, although the danger is that the second line is misinterpreted - e.g. as a 'sublisting' as opposed to a continuation of the breadcrumbs. You might want to emphasise the continuation with a leading separator, and a negative text-indent might also help (so the second line is then indented).


I would suggest that, if your breadcrumb 'row' is full width, and it's still wrapping over more than one line, you might have either too many levels in the hierarchy, or your breadcrumb page titles are too long, each of which could lower usability.


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