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Tabs

Updated in October 2026

Use tabs to let users navigate between related sections of content, displaying 1 section at a time.

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Past day

Case manager Cases opened Cases closed
Amina Rahman 3 0
Daniel Chen 1 0
Nia Morgan 2 0

Past week

Case activity for the past week.

Past month

Case activity for the past month.

Past year

Case activity for the past year.

When to use tabs

The tabs component lets users navigate between related sections of content, displaying 1 section at a time.

Tabs can be a helpful way of letting users quickly switch between related information if:

  • your content can be usefully separated into clearly labelled sections
  • the 1st section is more relevant than the others for most users
  • users will not need to view all the sections at once

Tabs can work well for people who use a service regularly, for example, staff using a patient record system. Their need to perform tasks quickly may be greater than their need for simplicity of first-time use.

Test your content without tabs first. Consider if it's better to:

  • simplify and reduce the amount of content
  • split the content across multiple pages
  • keep the content on a single page, separated by headings
  • use a table of contents to let users navigate quickly to specific sections of content

When to not use tabs

Do not use the tabs component if the total amount of content the tabs contain will make the page slow to load. For this reason, do not use the tabs component as a form of page navigation.

Tabs hide content from users and not everyone will notice them or understand how they work.

Do not use tabs if your users might need to:

  • read through all of the content in order, for example, to understand a step-by-step process
  • compare information in different tabs, because having to memorise information and switch backwards and forwards can be difficult

How to use tabs

Decide between using tabs, expanders and the details component

Tabs, expanders, and details all hide sections of content which a user can choose to reveal.

If you decide to use 1 of these components, consider if:

  • the user needs to view more than 1 section at a time – if not, use tabs
  • the user needs to switch quickly between sections – tabs can show content without pushing other sections down the page, unlike expanders
  • you have 7 or more sections of content – tabs are arranged horizontally, so may not work well, while expanders are arranged vertically
  • there are only 1 or 2 sections of short, less important content – the details component is more suitable as it's visually smaller and less prominent than an expander or tabs

Use clear labels

Tabs hide content, so the tab labels need to make it very clear what they link to. Otherwise users will not know if they need to click on them.

If you struggle to come up with clear labels, it might be because the way you've separated the content is not clear.

Order the tabs according to user needs

The 1st tab should be the most commonly needed section. Arrange the other tabs in the order that makes most sense for your users.

Do not disable tabs

Disabling elements is normally confusing for users. If there is no content for a tab, either remove the tab or, if that would be confusing for your users, explain why there is no content when the tab is selected.

Avoid tabs that wrap over more than 1 line

If you use too many tabs or they have long labels then they may wrap over more than 1 line. This makes it harder for users to see the connection between the selected tab and its content.

Accessibility

Keyboard users should be able to move focus between tabs using arrow keys and select a tab by pressing enter. This supports WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 2.1.1 Keyboard, level A.

Screen reader users should hear which tab is currently focused, how many tabs there are and whether the current tab is open. This supports WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value, level A.

Source

Learn more about Tabs in the GOV.UK Design System.

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Tabs variants

Open this example in a new tab

Past day

Case manager Cases opened Cases closed
Amina Rahman 3 0
Daniel Chen 1 0
Nia Morgan 2 0

Past week

Case activity for the past week.

Past month

Case activity for the past month.

Past year

Case activity for the past year.

Add a tag to a tab label when you need to draw attention to a quantity, status or update. It provides additional context about a section, for example:

  • unread notifications
  • pending actions
  • total number of records
  • filtered results

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Examples

Welsh Immunisation System (WIS)

This example shows the "Stock" management screen within WIS. It uses tabs to group related stock tasks together while displaying 1 focused section at a time.

Stock management screen with Transfers in, Records and Transfers out tabs

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