Accordion component

Accordions are a useful design pattern for progressive disclosure, especially when a page has a large amount of content which has the potential to impact usability, especially on mobile - an accordion, with collapsed and expanded states, allows the users to control content and reduce scrolling.

Use accordions sparingly or in particular use cases, e.g. FAQs - hiding content diminishes its value somewhat. Having to reveal and hide all content on a page is laborious and adds clicks, adding potentially unnecessary friction.

It must be clear that an accordion item is clickable to activate both the collapsed and expanded states, e.g. hoverstate and/or bold title etc.

An accordion item's content must open beneath the title.

Accessibility is an important consideration for Accordions, e.g. contrast required between expanded and collapsed accordion items as well as text and colour contrast.

It is a common myth that accordions impact SEO. Conversely, it has the potential to improve SEO under the guise of usability. As long as the content is within the HTML and is available to be crawled by search engines, it has little to no impact on SEO. In fact, accordions reduce the need for scrolling, especially on mobile, and so in some instances might be deemed to improve the user experience of a page; something that is factored into SEO more and more.

1. Accordions Are Not Always the Answer for Complex Content on Desktops

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• Vivamus ut maximus diam.

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Nam eget pretium sapien. Aenean dui dui, finibus sed pretium in, varius vitae dui. Suspendisse tellus sem, gravida a nibh quis, consequat vehicula ex.

Short text. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Bold text bold text bold text. Nullam consequat volutpat hendrerit. Interdum et malesuada fames ac ante ipsum primis in faucibus. Nullam luctus pretium tempor.

Medium-length text. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Bold text bold text bold text. Nullam consequat volutpat hendrerit. Interdum et malesuada fames ac ante ipsum primis in faucibus. Nullam luctus pretium tempor.

Praesent pretium hendrerit lacus. Nunc et nunc rutrum, vehicula nisl at, interdum metus. Italic text italic text italic text. Proin laoreet metus nec tellus ultricies laoreet. Nam congue neque id augue fringilla porttitor. Nunc tempor convallis urna.

Short link. In mollis eros sapien, molestie dapibus justo ultrices quis. Praesent condimentum, est eget pharetra hendrerit, diam nisl porttitor nulla, eu consequat metus arcu eget augue. Vivamus non mattis risus, non molestie nisl. Donec pharetra lorem nec eleifend fermentum. In quis pellentesque eros.

Really long text. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Bold text bold text bold text. Nullam consequat volutpat hendrerit. Interdum et malesuada fames ac ante ipsum primis in faucibus. Nullam luctus pretium tempor.

Praesent pretium hendrerit lacus. Nunc et nunc rutrum, vehicula nisl at, interdum metus. Italic text italic text italic text. Proin laoreet metus nec tellus ultricies laoreet. Nam congue neque id augue fringilla porttitor. Nunc tempor convallis urna.

Short link. In mollis eros sapien, molestie dapibus justo ultrices quis. Praesent condimentum, est eget pharetra hendrerit, diam nisl porttitor nulla, eu consequat metus arcu eget augue. Vivamus non mattis risus, non molestie nisl. Donec pharetra lorem nec eleifend fermentum. In quis pellentesque eros.

• Unordered list.
• Cras blandit enim at dapibus auctor. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia curae; Ut non tincidunt erat.
• Vivamus ut maximus diam.

Phasellus eu placerat mauris, nec luctus risus. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Long link long link long link long link long link long link. Maecenas gravida vehicula ex, nec blandit urna semper ut. Praesent elit est, aliquam at augue at, commodo pretium ipsum. Sed luctus vestibulum diam vel ultrices. Nullam tellus sapien, rutrum id pharetra nec, interdum non arcu. Duis in venenatis metus.

1. Ordered list.
2. Nulla rhoncus gravida euismod. Quisque vel sapien neque. Fusce eu risus id massa iaculis semper. Phasellus viverra dui ac condimentum sagittis.
3. Sed ornare iaculis magna quis vulputate.

Nam eget pretium sapien. Aenean dui dui, finibus sed pretium in, varius vitae dui. Suspendisse tellus sem, gravida a nibh quis, consequat vehicula ex.