I agree with most of what Kendra Gaines has to say about navigation bars. I don’t mind some controlled navigation1, whether in the sidebar or on the top of a site. I don’t believe that we’ve gone too minimal overall, because I think we’re giving users what they want—or maybe that’s what readers want access to—that’s the content. If you make readers jump through hoops to read your Web site, you’ve failed, regardless of the design element you’re talking about.
In other words, not a bunch of hierarchal Flash menus with 100 items in them. That’s unruly and not necessary. You failed. ↩