Presenting the same named parts of content through whichever disclosure affordance the context calls for.
Overview
A high-level summary that sets expectations and helps the reader decide whether to continue into the detail below.
Details
The mechanics: specifications, constraints, and the nuanced decisions that shape implementation.
References
Source material, prior art, and external standards that informed the design.
Content often divides into a small, stable set of named parts. Whether those parts appear as horizontal tabs or collapsible disclosure regions is not a property of the content — it’s a property of the context: available space, information density, reading mode.
Tab bar and collapsible details — the pair the current mechanism offers — are not layout options but disclosure affordances: different ways of managing which content is visible and how the actor navigates between parts. The set is open; a vertical tab rail or an exclusive accordion would answer the same contract.
The name stays on the parts because the parts are what every realisation shares; the move beneath them is more general — affordance follows context. This pattern makes that move over named content parts; Priority+ makes it over inline groups of controls. The general move has no entry of its own yet.
Related patterns
Enables
- Form — splitting a long form into adaptive, separately disclosed parts.
Instantiates
- Progressive disclosure — sections apply gradual disclosure adaptively, combining details and tabs affordances
Enacts
- Adaptability — sections rearrange and reveal content based on context
Complements
- Grouping — organising content into named groups is a prerequisite for sectioning