Drop-down (also known as drop-down menu, drop-down box, pull-down list) is a menu that shows more options as soon as a visitor hovers or clicks the menu button.
Drop-downs can be problematic due to the poor design.
If a drop-down menu has hovering functionality, as soon as a user takes a small hover away from the menu, it disappears. After that, the user has to start the process all over again. The situation is even more frustrating when one option in the hovering drop-down opens yet another drop-down.
Another problem occurs when there are too many options to fit in the screen and the user has to scroll down. Or when drop-downs are used in mobile versions: they are never useful on mobiles.
Google search crawlers do not like drop-downs either since they can not read them well and, consequently, they may rank websites with drop-downs lower.
However, it is still widely used due to its efficiency in the usage of space above the fold. To make it more usable, webmasters create clickable drop-downs or delay the hovering effect so that the menu stays there for a couple of seconds after the user moves away from the cursor.
Popular alternatives to drop-downs are sidebars, scrolling panels, and card-based navigation.
