Hamburger Replacement Mechanic

A topic of discussion that often comes up for digital designers, particularly in the mobile web development space, has been the issue of site navigation. Web sites displayed on full-sized monitors and computers have all the room they need to play around with site navigation layouts and menu bars, however in the mobile space, there is little room to present so much information with a clean, alluring design. Often, designers use a device referred to colloquially as the "hamburger button" to denote an ability to access a drop down menu function for site navigation. The button, however, is increasingly seen as distracting and antithetical to attractive design and layout. 

This journal entry will detail a proposed replacement for the hamburger button, not at a design level, but at a mechanical UI level for mobile browsers. 

The Hamburger

While the Internet and many foodies consider the Koryo Burger as the world's most unattractive, a fair number of graphical designers would argue that the hamburger button deserves that title. A simple arrangement of three parallel horizontal lines, it is an intuitive device for touch-oriented web navigation on small mobile screens, easy for many to interpret as "hey, menu here."

One mechanic, however, that is more intuitive than the hamburger button is the swipe, particularly from the top of the screen. Apple iPhone users in particular are already familiar with this mechanic, swiping from the top edge of the screen to access quick information widgets for information such as time, schedule, weather conditions, and pending messages. 

The replacement

This design journal entry proposes the creation of a browser-level mechanic utilizing this top-swipe motion at the top of browser pages to access menu functions usually accessed via a hamburger button. The implementation of such an ability would grant digital designers more options to create appealing, expressive layouts and designs in the small space of the mobile screen. 

There are still technical limitations to be addressed, however. Primarily, the biggest challenge is in how the mechanic would distinguish between a swipe to access a site menu, and a swipe to access other phone functions.