link color(s) in menu with submenu

[chlori]

Hi

I am planning to design a website with a menu like this
(Javascript enabled):

Homelink
Anotherlink
Category 01
Category 02
Category 03

- If I click on Homelink the page index.php opens.
- If I click on Anotherlink I get to another page (another.php).
- But if I click on one of the category links (eg Category
01), then the submenu opens, like this:

Home
Anotherlink
Category 01
Page 01
Page 02
Page 03
Category 02
Category 03

So every word can be clicked. It either shows/hides the
submenu or opens another page.

- Is it confusing if the text color (or decoration etc.)
looks the same for all links ("open-page-link" and
"show/hide-submenu-link")? Does the average user expect to
open a new page after clicking on a link?
- Any ideas how to show the difference between
"open-page-link" and "show-submenu-link"?
- Can you give me examples of sites where something similar
has been done with success?
- Am I trying it the wrong way?

BTW, this is the version for users without javascript support:

Home
Anotherlink
Category 01
Page 01
Page 02
Page 03
Category 02
Page 04
Page 05
Page 06
Category 03
Page 07
Page 08
Page 09

I can't provide an URL yet, sorry.

Thanks for your help!

chlori

 

[Bernhard Sturm]

- Is it confusing if the text color (or decoration etc.) looks the same
for all links ("open-page-link" and "show/hide-submenu-link")?

no I don't think it's confusing. Users might be used to this behaviour
by the daily use of the Windows Explorer, but you might considering
showing some sort of + for a node to open and . for menu items with no
conected sub-menu branches.

Does the

average user expect to open a new page after clicking on a link?

not necessarily. If you communicated to the user, that something
different will happen...

- Any ideas how to show the difference between "open-page-link" and
"show-submenu-link"?

+ icon for show-submenu
.. for open-page

- Can you give me examples of sites where something similar has been
done with success?

www.ed.gov
and if you want the expandable menu:
http://www.gazingus.org/html/menuExpandable3.html

- Am I trying it the wrong way?

no, you can follow this path

bernhard

 

[Toby A Inkster]

So every word can be clicked. It either shows/hides the
submenu or opens another page.

Here is a nice example of something like that:

http://www.goddamn.co.uk/tobyink/scratch/menu

Tested in IE6, Konqueror 3.1, Moz 1.4 and Opera 7. Degrades nicely without
Javascript. Is fine without Javascript and CSS, though it looks a bit
strange if you have Javascript but no CSS.

Exercise for the reader: get the rollovers to work in IE6. Get things
working in IE5 (mac and/or win). Neither of these tasks are exactly rocket
science.