When Bottom Navigation Isn't Best

I'm developing a mobile app and dealing with various UI/UX issues. I'm open to all kinds of ideas at this stage, however some designers I consult with seem to be zealots for bottom-navigation and are hesitant in actually analyzing whether the bottom-nav is actually best for my app; they just want me to use the bottom tabs navigation as if it's some UI law.

One point I try to bring up is that my business model has users who aren't typical one-handed mobile users, are tech savvy, would use my app more of a tool, and would spend only a few minutes in it. The app isn't a typical lazy-content-browsing experience where you want to minimize fingers-over-top-of-screen interference, and where you want to keep the use transfixed and spending time in the app.

Anyways, I'd like to hear about situations where a bottom nav was decided-on, or started-with, and you had good reason to eliminate it and go with another navigation design.

Most articles out there talk about eliminating hamburger menus and diving into bottom nav. Is the converse simply going back to hamburger menu?

Answer

You're right in questioning in the "one nav fits all" mindset. It really depends on your content. Here's a few things for thought.

Bottom nav is shown to increase engagement

There is a lot of research about this now. I highly suggest looking at Luke Wroblewski, specifically he talks about bottom nav here, here, here and here. Like you said, however, your primary goal may not be driving longer, sustained engagement.

Hamburger menus hide information, but that may be ok

It's proven in research that hamburger menus hide information, but this could be ok. If you need to include several functions but they are not of premier importance, hiding them behind a hamburger menu can be a good solution.

Combinations of nav systems can work

I'd suggest using a nav bar for the top 3-5 things a user is most likely going to be doing in your app. And then if there are more functions available to the user – especially a user who is highly technical and driven to use your app – then placing those in a less-obvious nav structure is fine.