Skip to Main Content

Loyola University Chicago Libraries

Side-Nav Layout

A guide to transitioning and best practices

What to Consider

  • What pages to include chat box and profile box
    • They don't fit well in the main column
    • If you put them under the side nav column (left column), they will be the first things to appear for users in mobile view 
  • Whether or not you want to show subpages and box-level content in side nav 
  • Prioritize content
    • What boxes are the MOST important for users 
    • Appropriate labeling 
    • Add new pages instead of stacking boxes that require scrolling  
  • Clean and condense content  
    • cut text
    • add new pages
    • hide the description underneath database assets and using the hover over i option 
      • Instead of generic databases descriptions, consider adding subject specific instruction content
    • Use images where appropriate
  • Size videos appropriately 
    • YouTube videos default to iframe width="560" height="315"
    • You can adjust that to 728 by 410 or another proportion that works for you

Fun Things to Try

  • Add Book from a Catalog 
    • Need ISBN to get the book cover image (might have to try a couple) 
    • For ebooks - in the call number field, label it as an Ebook 
  • Floating Boxes 
    • Example: https://libguides.luc.edu/ucwr110/instruction
    • Use Heading 4 to label box
  • Test out Tabbed and Gallery Boxes
    • Tabbed Box Example: FAQs box on https://libguides.luc.edu/side-nav/help
    • Gallery Box Example: Books and Influencers Box https://libguides.luc.edu/ramblerread/dive
      • Each gallery "slide" can be an image, book, database, libguide or libcal event