Discussion: Different Navigation Styles

Can anyone find creatively organized web sites which are still easy to navigate? What makes these sites work? What makes a site hard to navigate?

A site that is hard to navigate will be 
1. a typical university website, in which the programme list is a sub-menu of "for prospective students" tab. It is hard to find the information one needs when there are too much information in a single drop down list.
2. broken hyperlink
3. fail to load

Websites that are easy to navigate:

Chick-Fil-A is a very happening website. There is a feature that suggests Your nearest branch on the top, and its menu can be accessed by 1. scrolling down the homepage or 2. clicking on the menu button. This is a weird feature that I cannot understand now, maybe when I study more about UX it will be clearer to me. 

Anyway, the navigation bar only has three tabs, with the middle one offering a pictorial drop down menu showing what each is about. On the first glance I was expecting the articles to change as I hover from "Food" to "Lifestyle", but it didn't. Maybe it's just me.

Lastly, this is the cutest social media link I have seen so far.

Microsoft.com is organised into three main platforms - store, product and support. Taking on an individualised approach, each tab directs user to a webpage of a completely different layout/ style. It is quite overwhelming and made me realised that I like coherent styles.

Adobe has a simple homepage with a uniquely graphical drop down menu. The information about Adobe is included in the menu instead of footer. The site is clearly organised based on the visitors' needs, I guess they know their customers very well. 

Eone is a watch brand. I think there's a trend among user-friendly websites: Mostly three tabs on the main navigation bar and only one big and nice visual on the homepage. It gets a bit boring after seeing all the same layouts.

Elle's biggest standout is the 

1.menu that stays at the top of your screen as you scroll up and down, and a 

2.hidden side bar that functions like a catalogue/ content page. The way its sub menu overlaps the parent one saves a lot of screen space and makes it easy to click.

The Art of Manliness has a creative drop-down menu that 
1. gives examples of the content within those fields. It acts as a good summary or preview especially when a large amount of information is expected. This style will be useful for sites with a big archive of articles. 

The Internet Archive uses icons instead of text in its navigation bar.