Accordion

What is it?

An accordion is a panel that can be expanded and collapsed to show more or fewer details in digital interfaces.

What problems does it solve?

Reading service terms, policies, or EULAs online feels even worse and slower than reading them on paper, especially if we are reading them on mobile. This experience is suboptimal because the information has not been designed and envisioned to work effectively in a digital, interactive medium. As a result, it discourages users from reading and engaging.

When to use it?

You can use accordions in any legal document to prevent the "wall of text" effect and make create a more compact and structured layout. Accordions can be used to chunk down the information into thematically coherent blocks. They also help layerying information, as they show the key details only at first, and give users the opportunity to drill down for further details on-demand.

Why use it?

Readers tend to engage with information only if they perceive that it is relevant and not too effortful to process. Accordions help the user to get a general sense of the document and proceed to understand it step by step, instead of overloading them with details from the get-go.

Where to use it?

• Any legal document online (terms of use, EULAs, policies...)

© 2022 Stefania Passera.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License