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Left vs right sidebar

Left vs right sidebar

Background

The left and right sidebars are competing for screen space when users view course content. Within the right sidebar, discussion panel and the upsell panel also compete with each other.

Current behavior:

  1. Only one sidebar can be open at a time, right or the left.

  2. If a course unit has discussions enabled, the right sidebar auto-opens, pushing the left sidebar closed. If not, the left sidebar opens instead.

  3. Because the right sidebar prioritizes discussions, the upsell panel remains closed by default.

Problem

  1. Navigation disappears when discussions are present.

  2. Upsell is effectively invisible by default.

  3. The UI behaves differently for different units. Users have to mentally model why panels open or close.

Need community input on

  1. Is the current “only one sidebar open” constraint really a constraint?

  2. Should one sidebar have default priority over the other?

    1. If yes, should discussions override navigation?

      1. On a large Open edX instance where discussions has priority over navigation, 29% of users used the sidebar to navigate whereas 71% used the navigation buttons on top.

  3. Or should we let the last user action determine the next state for both sidebars?

  4. Does the upsell panel need to be visible by default?

    1. If no, do we need to keep it in the UI?