Negative Margins - Image Navigation

[BeTheBoss]

I created a good navigation but can't replicate it with html or css so I might have to stick to images. What would you recommend as a best practice for images in navigation? This site doesn't need to rank really high, it's mostly for a portfolio.

[WilliamBay]

Well, if you don't want it to rank, I would at least follow accessiblilty best practices. And those would be:

• Make the images very clear to read
• Provide "Alt Attribute" text for each button that clearly says what each button is for
• Provide "Title" tags that identify the menu button (this is for screen readers that speak the content of a site to blind internet users).
• Make sure that you "map" the area of the button so that when a person hovers over the entire button, they get the little hand that indicates there is a link there.

Having an image menu is definitely not my first choice. I'd really look at the possibility of using Google Fonts, and something like the CSS gradient generator to get dynamic fonts and gradients if that is what you are trying to do before using images.

But, it's not the end of the world, I have done them in the past (years ago). You just want to make sure that it is very clear and readily readable for people that visit the site.