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The Daily Insight

How do I make a good drop-down menu?

Author

Matthew Wilson

Updated on February 25, 2026

10 Drop Down Menu Best Practices You Should Follow

  1. Keep menus under two levels deep.
  2. Create a clear and well-structured drop-down menus.
  3. Add hover or selection effects to stand out menu items.
  4. Use icons or images to enrich your drop-down menus.
  5. Keep menu styles consistent.
  6. Grey out unavailable menu items.

Why dropdown menus are bad?

Drop down menus are bad for two reasons. If your site uses drop down menus, you can see the problem right there in your stats: low visits on high pages. Exception: really big “mega drop downs” with lots of options test well in usability studies. If you have a big site with many sections, they may improve usability.

What is the drop-down menu on a website called?

A drop-down list (abbreviated drop-down, or DDL; also known as a drop-down menu, drop menu, pull-down list, picklist) is a graphical control element, similar to a list box, that allows the user to choose one value from a list. When a drop-down list is inactive, it displays a single value.

How many types of dropdowns are there?

I also want to clarify that there are two main types of dropdowns: those used for navigation and those used in forms. For this cheat sheet’s purpose, we will just be looking at the form variant. In this cheat sheet, we will go over the following: Anatomy.

Are dropdown menus good?

Dropdown navigation menus make sense in a lot of digital experiences. They can help users narrow down their choices as to where they want to go. However, there are also places where dropdown menus don’t make as much sense and can, in fact, damage the user experience as well as the accessibility of the website.

Are Dropdowns bad UX?

In General, Avoid Drop-Downs When There Are More Than 10 or Fewer Than 5 Options. Drop-downs quickly become difficult for users when they are presented with an overwhelming number of options to choose from. Take, for instance, a commonly included input in checkout forms, the “Country Selection” drop-down.

Are drop down menus good?

From a design standpoint, however, drop-down menus are an excellent feature because they help clean up a busy layout. If structured correctly, drop-down menus can be a great navigation tool, while still being a usable and attractive design feature. Yes, that’s right: drop-down navigation menus can be user-friendly.

How do you create a drop down menu?

Click the cell in which you would like to create the drop-down menu. In the Ribbon menu at the top, click the Data tab. On the Data tab, click the Data Validation option. In the Data Validation window, on the Settings tab, click on the drop-down list in the Allow section and select the List option.

How to create a simple CSS dropdown menu?

Use any element to open the dropdown menu, e.g. a , or element. Use a container element (like ) to create the dropdown menu and add the dropdown links inside it. Wrap a element around the button and the to position the dropdown menu correctly with CSS.

How do you create a drop down?

Click into the Drop-Down List Properties section and click the “Add” button. Here is where you type all of the items users can select from in the list. Enter the “Display Name” for each individually, and the Value field is autopopulated. Click “OK” to add each to the drop-down list.

How do you insert a drop down box?

Insert a drop-down list box On the form template, place the cursor where you want to insert the control. If the Controls task pane is not visible, click More Controls on the Insert menu, or press ALT+I, C.