How effective would other professionals rate a hamburger menu on its own. Is it necessary to have a menu which is 100% visible and doesn't need a click to be shown. I intend on using the answers here to determine my future projects.
Please note I am talking about mobile / tablet sites. I believe menus shouldn't be hidden in desktop sites.
Here is an example of a mockup I made for my site which is in construction.
I think the hambuerger menu is recognizable by the vast majority of users nowadays, when in the right context.
In your example, I do not think it is obvious. I usually expect to see the icon for expanding a menu, whether it be a hamburger icon, three vertical dots or a "menu" link on the top right edge of the screen, possibly the left top. But there in the middle it makes me think it's a control to drag/resize the top part. Adding the word "menu" or making it look more clickable would certainly also help.
Nowadays, it is a well established indicator as a button to reveal a menu. There is no reason to worry that people won't understand what it's for based on the icon alone. However where it's situated and whether it's a button are other indicators that could confuse users.
I tend to find it more obvious when situated on the right hand side like spiral has said, and in your design I think it should also be larger based on the sizes of the text that you're using. It's not 100% clear that it's a button to press and could be mistaken for a logo because of where it's situated, if I were you I would consider inverting the colours to make it more clear, or placing a partial border around it.
Swing by UX.SE for lots of discussion on this topic.
The hamburger icon itself isn't the problem, it's people's tendency to scan quickly and rely on the design to expose important things. If you hide content behind a menu button, users will skip over it until they are looking for something that might be hidden in a menu.
Take a look at these two top nav solutions. Which version is going to drive discovery of the four most important things (whatever they may be)? Forgive the irritating colors ... I was having fun
Notice that the 'burger didn't disappear in the expanded version. There's probably still more things in your site structure. Things like "pictures of car bumpers", "8th grade art projects", "my other businesses". Stuff that you don't need people to discover when casually browsing or landing in the middle of your site from a search link.
