Should accordions auto-close sections?
Published
The short answer
No.
The long answer
No, accordions should not auto-close sections.
Why not???
- Prevents people from being able to compare sections
- Relies too heavily on memory to “compare” sections
- Requires people to expend more energy to re-open sections
- Moving information around distracts and disorients people
- Shifting content makes people physically ill
- Likely that people can’t easily use find-in-page
- Probably prevents screen reader navigation (e.g. by headings)
The real question
Why do you feel compelled to restrict what information someone sees in your web content? Or to control the height of that content? It’s not possible to control the height of content without disrespecting user settings, failing accessibility standards, or breaking responsiveness.
Don’t overthink it. Don’t over-engineer it. If your users run into problems with the height/length of content, there are a lot of better ways to address those issues than accordions with auto-closing sections.