Accordion

The accordion component delivers large amounts of content in a small space through progressive disclosure. The header title give the user a high level overview of the content allowing the user to decide which sections to read.

Accordions can make information processing and discovering more effective. However, it does hide content from users and it’s important to account for a user not noticing or reading all of the included content. If a user is likely to read all of the content then don’t use an accordion as it adds the burden of an extra click; instead use a full scrolling page with normal headers.

By default the chevron icon is placed on the end side of the header. This allows for the title on the start side to align with other type elements in the layout, which is the preferred alignment scenario.

However, in some rare scenarios, the accordion may be modified to place the icon in start front of the title to function more like a tree. Most instances should use the default end alignment, especially for any pure content or documentation purposes. Icon placement in accordions should be consistent throughout your page and should not alternate.

Accordions can be placed with main page content or placed inside of a container such as a side panel or tile.

When placing an accordion on the 2x Grid with its default alignment, the indented title and content align to the grid columns, and the top and bottom borders hang into the gutter. However, the accordion can be modified to have a flush alignment where the titles and content are instead flush aligned with the top and bottom borders having 0px padding.

When the accordion content is longer than the viewport the whole accordion should vertically scroll. Content should not scroll inside of an individual panel. Content should never scroll horizontally in an accordion.

The accordion component has two main states: collapsed and expanded. The chevron icon at the end of the accordion indicates which state the accordion is in. The chevron points down to indicate collapsed and up to indicate expanded.

Accordions begin by default in the collapsed state with all content panels closed. Starting in a collapsed state gives the user a high level overview of the available information.

A user can then independently expand each section of the accordion allowing for multiple sections to be open at once.

In addition to the collapsed and expanded states, accordions also have interactive states for focus, hover, and disabled. See the style tab for more details.

Users can trigger a state change by clicking on the chevron or clicking anywhere in the header area.

Users can navigate between accordion headers by pressing Tab or Shift-Tab. Users can trigger a state change by pressing Enter or Space while the header area has focus. For additional keyboard interactions, see the accessibility tab.

Use flush alignment when designing within smaller spaces on a page such as side panels or sidebars to achieve better text alignment with other content. Flush alignment is also used to help avoid converging rule lines between components that are close to each other on a page.

Flush alignment places the row title and chevron icons with 0px padding, keeping them flush to the rule dividers. For hover and focus interactive states, the left and right padding receives an additional 16px padding.

The following components are additional ways to organize content. Consider the type and length of content you are working with when choosing a content container. Longer form content may benefit from tabs or a content switcher while very short content might do better in a structured list.

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