Expand and collapse

Summary  

In some areas of the BI applications, information can be shown in both condensed and expanded forms. For instance, in RAFT’s primary navigation (on the left of the screen), we allow users to expand and collapse menu items to browse the site hierarchy. In applications that include complex hierarchies, expanding and collapsing of those hierarchies is allowed.

Code

Example (in use, with an interaction, in context)

Example

Related patterns 

Tabs
Hyperlinks

Problem

Hierarchical information can be too long to show expanded at all times.

Solution

Adding expand/collapse functionality allows users to decide how much or how little information to view at once.

Rationale

We considered having this menu open at all times, but content proved to be overwhelming for readability or scanability.