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Hierarchical, vertical navigation to place at the side of a page.
Guidance
When to use the side navigation component
To display a navigational hierarchy with one to three levels.
To display the “sub-navigation” within a section of the website.
When to consider something else
Small site. If the site has fewer than five pages, consider organizing the page without a navigational hierarchy.
Existing navigation. If your page already has a horizontal and vertical navigation bar, consider ways to simplify your navigation system.
Usability guidance
Show the current page. Indicate where a user is within the navigational hierarchy. Use the “active” state to show users which page they have navigated to.
Keep the navigation links short. They can be shorter derivatives of page titles themselves.
Always test your navigation. If the navigation hierarchy is too long, users may miss items at the bottom. If it’s too deep, users may miss items that require too many clicks. Usability test to find the right balance between breadth and depth.
Accessibility guidance
The width of the current menu item’s highlight border is set with the $theme-sidenav-current-border-width variable.
Using the side navigation component
Side navigation settings
Variable
Description
$theme-sidenav-current-border-width
Width of the current section indicator.
$theme-sidenav-font-family
Font family of the side navigation.
$theme-sidenav-reorder
Reorder Documentation template sidenav with CSS. Favor code example in Documentation template instead.
Side navigation variants
This component has no variants.
Package
Package usage:@forward "usa-sidenav";
Dependencies: uswds-fonts
Latest updates
Meaningful code and guidance updates are listed in the following table:
Added a new fallback setting for sidenavs in Documentation template.
The new setting $theme-sidenav-reorder reorders the sidenav with CSS. Users should follow new markup recommendation in Documentation template’s code example to avoid accessibility issues.
More information:
uswds#5809
Breaking
Added type="button" to all non-form buttons to prevent default submit behaviors.
This allowed us to remove preventDefault() from the relevant component JavaScript.
More information:
uswds#4695
Fixed color of active parents in side navigation.
Fixed a regression where parent items in usa-sidenav no longer receive primary color.
More information:
uswds#4163