The hamburger menu or simply the hamburger icon. We all have already seen it and we have also used them before. But some of us don’t know that the name of that symbol is called a hamburger icon. Yeah, the symbol got that name because it is having a shape of a normal hamburger.

Here let’s see the entire details of this Hamburger button.

• What is it?
• History of it?
• Why we still use it?

What is a Hamburger Menu

The Hamburger menu, or the Hamburger icon, is a three horizontal lines button that we mostly see on apps and websites. It became very common nowadays. You can see its symbol on the above image. The use of this burger menu is to open up a side menu with selected options or a navigation drawer.

Well, the Hamburger menu is an easy way to communicate to users to show that the button contains a list of items that takes them to some specific pages. The symbol gives the app or website a clean, minimalist look. Simple, but effective.

History of Hamburger Menu

The history starts in 1981. The Hamburger menu was created by an interaction designer name Norm Cox. He made this cute looking burger icon for the Xerox Star personal workstation.

It was a brilliant icon but after the Xerox Star, the burger menu stayed quiet for some time. However, the three-line menu came to light after the advent of mobile devices. When UX designers were searching for an icon that fit a multitude of buttons onto the tiny screens of phones, they found this burger menu as perfect for them.

After that, this icon has become one of the well-known symbols for apps and websites. Likewise, in 2008, this icon showed up in the Twitter app called Tweetie. In 2009, it again came to the Voice Memos app on the iPhone.

Why we still use Hamburger Menu

The hamburger menu is a widely used icon on different platforms, but at some point, we may doubt that why we still use this icon when we have many great designers who can design some other beautiful icons.

The answer is super simple. It is easily recognizable. In other words, everyone knows the use of the burger menu. so this icon makes people to easily understand and use apps and website’s interface. A sudden introduction of a new alternative Hamburger icon may confuse people and they may often neglect the new symbol.

Closing Words

In conclusion, the Hamburger menu was a revolutionary introduction to the design field with its clean and easy to navigate function. Now almost all apps and websites are still using this icon to showcase the menu bar without writing the word menu below them.

I hope you understood everything about this icon. If you like to learn more interesting topics like this, simply go to our What Is category page. Enjoy reading!!