Microsoft have added Mega Menu functionality to SharePoint Online making a significant improvement to the out of the box navigation functionality.

The Mega Menu is only available on Communication sites at this stage, however if you have a Modern Team Site connected to a Hub Site (using the Communication Site template), the navigation does appear.  Navigation is configured on the Hub Site and then inherits to all sites connected to the Hub, making it easy to maintain the navigation.

If you have multiple Hub Sites, you will need to configure the Mega Menu on each Hub. This gives you the ability to have different navigation in each Hub, however its also good practice to keep navigation consistent. I like to design navigation that has common elements shared across all Hubs and then a specific section of the global navigation specific to the Hub the user is working in.

Digital Workplace Conference: Introduction to SharePoint Hub Sites

Example Mega Menu (Team Sites link selected)

Mega Menu’s are a great way to surface content from across your Intranet or even link to external URL’s. Nielson Norman Group have a good article on using Mega Menu’s here.

A few things I’d like to see added in the future:

• Ability to add icons or images in the menu
• Team Sites support without needing a Hub Site
• Term Set navigation option so that navigation can be configured centrally across multiple Hub Sites and sites not connected to a Hub Site.

Menu items can be audience targeted allowing a specific menu item or node to appear only for users in a specific group. For example, show the Managers Tool box menu to members of the Managers Group but hide it for everyone else.

My first impression of the Mega Menu is good. The functionality is fairly basic at this stage but it is a big improvement over the classic SharePoint navigation. Well done Microsoft, keep up the good work!

To learn more about the Mega Menu, watch this short video where I walk through the features and functionality.

Update: I’ve been working on some demo’s to help with navigation workshops. Here’s some additional screenshots of the Mega Menu.

Choosing the ‘edit’ option to the right of the menu, allow Site Owners to edit the navigation. Note you need to do this in the Hub Site. If you have more than one Hub site means editing in each Hub.

Good navigation is an important element for SharePoint usability. A Mega Menu is a great way to promote content and functionality to users. If you haven’t tried it out already, give it a go!