An example of the side navigation component.

Use side navigation to help provide more screen space for main content. Side navigation is well-suited to apps that have mutually exclusive features which need to be switched between easily on any page.

Use side navigation alongside additional components like page headers to create a variety of different layouts and navigation styles.

For intranet-style and content heavy apps, use top navigation as it's better suited for providing links to a large number of pages.

Use either side navigation or top navigation. Don't use both at the same time.

Avoid using side navigation if the app has many destinations grouped into a multi-level hierarchy. Instead use a top navigation with grouped links.

Side navigation is expandable and displays the navigation labels and app info when expanded. Choose whether to display the side navigation as expanded or collapsed by default when the page loads.

Set the side navigation to static if you want it to be either permanently expanded or permanently collapsed. This removes the expansion toggle button from the bottom of the side navigation.

Use a drill-down menu option to provide access to child links in a sub-menu. The sub-menu can be closed by using the back button in the sub-menu's top section.

Sub-menus can be nested, but avoid creating overly deep page hierarchies and consider using top navigation with grouped links instead.

The side navigation uses the app's theme colour as the background and automatically sets the foreground colour to ensure accessible contrast ratios. Change the app's theme colour to change the background colour of the side navigation and help distinguish your app from others your users may use.

Always position the side navigation on the left hand of the screen and make sure that it vertically fills the browser window.

Use your app's name, icon, status and version information in the side navigation's app info fields.

Follow the content style guidelines for all menu option labels as well as each option group labels.

Follow the icon style guidelines when selecting icons for menu options.

Keep labels concise as they will truncate if they are too long to display in the side navigation.

Set the side navigation menu items to reflect your app's main navigation links.

By default, menu items will only display their icon when the side navigation is collapsed. The item label will be displayed via a tooltip when hovering or focusing on the menu item.

Set the menu items to display their labels in the collapsed state by default if this will aid the recognition of the feature. However, take care when doing this as long menu item labels will be truncated.

Group related menu items into expandable menu item groups.

Use a drill-down menu item if the menu item has a large number of child links to display. This will display the child links in the side navigation's sub-menu.

Use the sticky bottom menu section to provide quick links to global app features or external links.

Make sure to include alt-text when specifying icons for menu items.