Description
Issue
Currently, we can't have a "parent" header in the left nav actually be a page; if you click, they just open the drop down of "child" pages.
E.g. clicking "Effective Dart" just expands the drop down, all content has to be at the child level.
If you want a page that's just about Effective Dart (like introducing it as a concept), as well as have child pages "under" it, you have to create another page ("Overview") and also put it under "Effective Dart", inline with the "child" subtopics.
Change
I think we should change this to instead work like:
-
Clicking directly on an expandable parent (e.g. "Effective Dart") in the left nav:
- takes you to a page of the same name, AND
- expands the dropdown of its children in the left nav.
-
Clicking only on the arrow adjacent to the expandable parent:
- keeps you on the page you're on, AND
- only expands the dropdown in the left nav.
-
Maintain the option to not have a page for the parent, i.e. current behavior, if there's no content to put there.
Motivation
The motivation here is a bunch of admittedly minimal, but definitely non-zero, aggravations:
- It makes much more intuitive sense to me to click on the "parent" or "umbrella", and get taken directly to a page on that topic. (like I see "Null safety" in the left nav, I want to click on it to learn about null safety)
- I think it's very unintuitive that the overview page of a topic that conceptually encompasses other topics is inline with those other topics.
- I feel like there's a tiny level of cognitive stress that goes into clicking on something (like "Null safety"), expecting to learn more about it, but instead being faced with the drop down of other topics that unfolds.
- It's an added click (minimal, but still overhead)
- Granted "Overview" is obvious, and it's always first, but seeing all the subtopics at the same time is a little much.
- I'm not sure what form the site IA restructure will end up taking, but whatever it is, I'm concerned that needing an extra page for every expandable topic will get crowded/overwhelming.
I am aware that a lot of doc sites use this structure (expand > overview). But I don't like it; this example feels much cleaner to me.
Action items
- Would love some other opinions
- See what UX thinks
- Find out if it's possible, and if possible, how difficult it would be to execute
Related to #4565