Sidebar navigation UI design examples

A sidebar holds an app's main navigation in a vertical list. These examples include a current page with aria-current, a count badge with screen reader text, a collapsible Reports group built as a disclosure button, a locked item, and a button that collapses the sidebar to icons while keeping the link names. Eight styles, light and dark, with HTML, CSS and a few lines of JavaScript. Every example is an original design that comes with its HTML code and a DESIGN.md of colour, type and spacing tokens, in light and dark. Free to use and adapt.

DeviceAll Web Mobile

StyleAll Minimal Editorial Brutalist Luxury Playful Corporate Retro Monochrome

Theme

16 examples

Web · minimal

Web · editorial

Web · brutalist

Web · luxury

Web · playful

Web · corporate

Web · retro

Web · monochrome

Mobile · minimal

Mobile · editorial

Mobile · brutalist

Mobile · luxury

Mobile · playful

Mobile · corporate

Mobile · retro

Mobile · monochrome

Sidebar navigation design tips

Wrap the sidebar in a nav landmark with a label such as Main.
Mark the current page with aria-current="page" and a strong visual cue (filled background or a side bar).
Keep link text for screen readers when collapsing to icons, and show a tooltip or title on hover.
Limit top-level items to about seven; group the rest under expandable sections.

Questions

Should a sidebar use role="menu"?

No. Site and app navigation is a list of links in a nav landmark. The menu role is for application-style command menus and changes how screen readers and keyboards behave.

How should the collapse button be labelled?

Give it aria-expanded and aria-controls pointing at the sidebar, and change its label between Collapse sidebar and Expand sidebar so the action is always clear.

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UI components

Tabs
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Sidebar navigation
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Website sections

Website templates

Building with an AI coding agent? Every screen here is also in the free Made Good Designs MCP server: ask Claude, Cursor or ChatGPT to search_ui_screens (e.g. “billing settings, editorial style”), get_ui_flow for a whole journey, and get_ui_screen_code to pull the HTML and DESIGN.md straight into your project.