Skip to main content

Side navigation

A vertical container for secondary navigation links

The side navigation component is a list of related links within a service.

Open in new tab

When to use this component

Use this component when users need to move around related pages within an area of a service.

The side navigation component is for use in internal services.

When to consider something else

You should not use side navigation as the main navigation in a service. Use the GOV.UK Header navigation component instead.

You should not use this component in public-facing services.

Design goals and metrics

There are multiple executions and versions of a side navigation without definitive research and community consensus. In the absence of this validation the goal of this component is to provide a consistent baseline design for side navigation for services to use and to improve upon.

Discuss on GitHub

There is a public discussion for this topic on GitHub where you can share anything you think might be useful. Discuss Side navigation on GitHub.

Get support

Need help implementing this in a prototype or production build? Get support from the Design System team.

Give feedback

We depend on insights from real projects to update and improve the design system. If you use something we made, tell us how it went.


Could we improve this page?

Send questions, comments or suggestions to the DWP Design System team.

Last updated: