USPTO Design

Tabs

Purpose

User’s need to flip between multiple focused panes/views of content.

Description

Tabs manage stacked panes of content, giving the users the ability to view only the content pane they are interested in. Each tab button has a corresponding content pane. Tabs build on a real world metaphor. The selected state is reinforced with the tab metaphor of a folder physically in front of the others in the set.

Basic functionality

  • You have multiple categories, views, and panes of content, but there is the need to only show one pane at a time.
  • Tabs are listed in a horizontal row.
  • Avoid overflowing tabs to new lines.
  • Tab titles should be short and predictable.
  • Tab buttons can contain icons, text, both, and even dropdowns.
  • Tab headings are sentence case. Only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized.

 

Normal tabs

The selected tab color should be the same color as the tab content.

<ul class="nav nav-tabs" role="tablist">
    <li class="active"><a href="#" role="tab" data-toggle="tab">Active</a></li>
    <li><a href="#" role="tab" data-toggle="tab">Normal</a></li>
    <li class="disabled"><a role="tab">Disabled</a></li>
</ul>

Light tabs

Use when the tabs need less emphasis in relation to other navigational elements.

<ul class="nav nav-tabs nav-tabs-light" role="tablist">
    <li class="active"><a href="#" role="tab" data-toggle="tab">Active</a></li>
    <li><a href="#" role="tab" data-toggle="tab">Normal</a></li>
    <li class="disabled"><a role="tab">Disabled</a></li>
</ul>

Pill tabs

Use when the tabs need even less emphasis in relation to other navigational elements.

<ul class="nav nav-pills" role="tablist">
    <li class="active"><a href="#" role="tab" data-toggle="tab">Active</a></li>
    <li><a href="#" role="tab" data-toggle="tab">Normal</a></li>
    <li class="disabled"><a role="tab">Disabled</a></li>
</ul>

Nested tabs

<ul class="nav nav-tabs" role="tablist">
    <li class="active"><a href="#" role="tab" data-toggle="tab">Template</a></li>
    <li><a href="#" role="tab" data-toggle="tab">History</a></li>
    <li><a href="#" role="tab" data-toggle="tab">Analytics</a></li>
</ul>
<div style="border-top: none; border-radius: 0;" class="panel panel-default">
    <ul class="nav nav-tabs nav-tabs-light" role="tablist">
        <li><a href="#" role="tab" data-toggle="tab">HTML</a></li>
        <li class="active"><a href="#" role="tab" data-toggle="tab">Preview</a></li>
    </ul>
    <div class="panel-body">
    </div>
</div>

Justified tabs

Evenly sized tabs distributed among the width of the container. This can improve alignment when the tabs are otherwise close to filling the width of the container.

<ul class="nav nav-tabs nav-justified" role="tablist">
    <li class="active"><a href="#" role="tab" data-toggle="tab">Activity</a></li>
    <li><a href="#" role="tab" data-toggle="tab">Info</a></li>
    <li><a href="#" role="tab" data-toggle="tab">Notes</a></li>
</ul>