mystery meat navigation
- noun
- /ˈmɪstəri mit ˌnævɪˈɡeɪʃən/
- Jargon
:
navegación confusa
- Many websites suffer from mystery meat navigation, leaving users confused about where to click next.
Examples
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The website's mystery meat navigation left users frustrated.
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Many early websites suffered from mystery meat navigation, forcing users to guess what icons would do.
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Designers are advised to avoid mystery meat navigation in user interfaces for clarity.
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If your app relies on mystery meat navigation, people might become frustrated and leave.
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Why do so many apps use mystery meat navigation?
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The confusing layout of the app was a clear case of mystery meat navigation, frustrating new users.
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During the usability test, participants struggled with mystery meat navigation that lacked clear labels or directions.
How Clear
- Texting
24
3.6
- Jargon
Surface Forms
Morphology
mystery + meat + navigation
A B1 learner who knows 'mystery', 'meat', and 'navigation' can plausibly infer that this refers to navigation that is unclear or puzzling, because 'mystery meat' evokes something unidentified and 'navigation' names the site menus. However, the expression is a metaphorical, domain-specific UX term whose precise nuance (hidden links or non‑obvious affordances) is not fully predictable from the parts, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Mystery meat navigation comes from the image of mystery meat, the unlabeled food in cheap cafeterias you cannot tell, and it applies that image to website navigation where buttons or icons hide what they do. So, like the food, users must guess what will happen, which is why it means 'navigation that is unclear and makes people guess'.