President of WebFX. Bill has over 25 years of experience in the Internet marketing industry specializing in SEO, UX, information architecture, marketing automation and more. William's background in scientific computing and education from Shippensburg and MIT provided the foundation for MarketingCloudFX and other key research and development projects at WebFX.

JavaScript allows you to add interactivity and feedback, making the user’s experience better and more intuitive.

Recently we showed you some exceptional CSS navigation techniques and we’d like to follow that up with an article about JavaScript-based navigation examples that you can use. Keep in mind that some of these techniques might not work if the client browser has JavaScript turned off (on average, 5% of users have JS disabled according to W3 web statistics).

In this article you’ll discover some terrific and unique JavaScript-powered navigation techniques and examples.

Tip: clicking on each image will take you directly to the demo page of the navigation menu technique if it’s on a separate page. Their names will take you to their project web page.

1. MenuMatic

This example takes semantic ordered or unordered list of links and turns it into a dynamic drop down menu system that can be vertically or horizontally oriented.

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2. Animated Menu using jQuery

A technique for animating menu items when a user hovers over them. Source files, including the PSD file, are available to download.

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3. Garagedoor Effect using jQuery

Gaya Kessler presents a wonder JavaScript menu that mimics the real garage door using jQuery.

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4. JGlide Menu

A very unique menu that floats on the page. Users can drag it to a position they desire.

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HVDesigns presents a menu that drops down and reveals more links.

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6. Perspective Tabs

You can have scrolling tabs with animation using this technique.

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Antonio Lupetti presents a Digg-like menu that uses simple JavaScript.

8. LavaLamp

When you hover an item, you’ll see the CSS sliding door technique created using jQuery. An alternate version for MooTols can be here.

9. Fisheye Menu

If you’re a big fan of the Mac dock you will enjoy this menu.

10. Simple JavaScript Accordions

A great technique for integrating accordion-style menus into your site.

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11. Sliding JavaScript Menu Highlight

This sliding hover effect script is an easy technique for highlighting menu items.

This technique allows you to fade in and fade out menu items.

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A simple JavaScript drop down menu tutorial.

A technique for creating animated menus using jQuery and CSS background-position properties.

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A menu using MooTools that expands the link’s font size when you mouse over the item.

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16. HoverAccordion/Sidebar Menu

This is an accordion plugin which can be used as a vertical sidebar menu too.

Another JavaScript menu based on MooTools with lots of features.

18. jQuery UI Tabs

Easily separate content using this tab example.

19. Proto.Menu: Right Click Menu

A customizable right-click menu written on top of the Prototype framework.

20. Accessible Expanding and Collapsing menu

This menu example allows you have two levels of navigation. When you click on main category the subcategory expands.

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What are you using?

We’d like to know if you have experience with any of these techniques and examples. Have a live web page? Share it with us in the comments.

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About the Author

Kawsar Ali is a web designer, graphic designer, and wannabe photographer based in NY, U.S. He’s also the founder of Desizntech, a site to find tips about web design, Mac, PC and more. If you’d like to connect with him, you can follow him on Twitter or at his Personal Website.