22/06/2026
Accordion submenu or hover submenu? Neither.
A team I work with had been going back and forth on a sidebar they thought was too long. Two solutions were on the table. Both had a problem.
๐๐ฉ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐: ๐๐๐๐จ๐ซ๐๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ฎ, ๐๐ฅ๐ข๐๐ค ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐ฑ๐ฉ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐๐ก ๐ฌ๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง. Clean and familiar. The catch was the team didn't want parent items to require two clicks before reaching a real page. For a tool people use every day, an extra click on every navigation feels like sand in the gears.
๐๐ฉ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐: ๐๐จ๐ฏ๐๐ซ ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ฎ, ๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐๐ง๐ญ ๐ข๐ญ๐๐ฆ๐ฌ ๐ซ๐๐ฏ๐๐๐ฅ ๐๐ก๐ข๐ฅ๐๐ซ๐๐ง ๐จ๐ง ๐ก๐จ๐ฏ๐๐ซ. This was the option they were leaning toward. I had to push back.
Hover menus look like they save space, but they add a small delay to every navigation. For a tool people use every day, that delay adds up fast.
They also break on touch. People increasingly review and approve things from tablets, and hover doesn't exist on touch, so you'd have to maintain two interaction patterns instead of one.
Hover menus work fine for marketing sites people visit occasionally. They're a poor fit for tools people live inside.
So I proposed a third option.
Keep the menu fully expanded, but fix the things that were actually making it feel heavy:
๐. ๐๐ข๐ ๐ก๐ญ๐๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐๐๐ข๐ง๐ . The menu was breathing too much. Reducing the vertical padding made the whole sidebar feel calmer without removing anything.
๐. ๐๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฒ๐ฅ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐๐ง๐ญ๐ฌ ๐๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐ก๐๐๐๐๐ซ๐ฌ, ๐ง๐จ๐ญ ๐ง๐๐ฏ ๐ข๐ญ๐๐ฆ๐ฌ. They weren't really clickable destinations. They were category labels for the actions underneath. Treating them as muted section headers (the pattern Linear and Notion use) cut the visual weight in half.
๐. ๐๐ฑ๐ฉ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐ฒ ๐๐๐๐๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ญ, ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ฆ ๐ซ๐๐ฆ๐๐ฆ๐๐๐ซ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐๐๐ก ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐๐ซ'๐ฌ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐๐๐๐ซ๐๐ง๐๐. People who want everything visible get to their usual route fast. People who prefer a tidier view collapse what they don't use. Either way, the choice sticks.
Same items. Same structure. No clicks added. No hover trap. The sidebar just got out of its own way.
When a team says "this feels too long," they usually mean "this feels too heavy." Different problems, different fixes.
