React Spectrum’s SideNav

[AwelTeam]

I love React Spectrum. It’s one of the few design systems that actually feels crafted. Accessibility, rigor, the whole thing.

But here’s the puzzle: every time someone tries to ship a SideNav, it dies on the vine.

• PRs opened, then stalled.
• Storybook demos, but never npm.
• not ready, needs refactor, deprioritized.
• And then… nothing.

Meanwhile, SideNav is not a “nice-to-have.” It’s the backbone of modern apps.
Atlassian just blogged about how central navigation is to their entire UX (Alexander Reardon’s talk).

So: why does SideNav keep getting pushed down the list?

• Design review bottleneck?
• Accessibility rabbit hole?
• Bandwidth?

Spectrum is too good to let SideNav stay the eternal ghost component.

[reidbarber]

SideNav is on the roadmap and should get picked up soon! I think the main holdup has been making sure designs cover all the possible use cases (links, selection, collapsing, sections, etc.).

[Sourour18]

Really glad to hear SideNav is on the roadmap. It’s a key piece for most modern apps, and having a Spectrum-native solution would be much better than rolling custom ones.
Looking forward to seeing progress on this.
Many thanks for the insights.

[AwelTeam]

Sorry for being impatient; I pushed hard for our team to adopt Spectrum, but now they're second-guessing that decision without a solid nav primitive. Totally get the holdup on nailing all those use cases (links, selection, collapsing, sections, etc.).
Can't wait to see it land.

[cheema-corellian]

I pushed hard for our team to adopt Spectrum, but now they're second-guessing that decision

Same story here. I pushed Spectrum hard for it in my org as well. I still love it very much. But eagerly waiting for new updates.

[AwelTeam]

@cheema-corellian Totally feel that!
And hey, every update does make our apps better, React Spectrum's rigor on accessibility and styling keeps paying off, even in the small wins.
Did you check out Alexander Reardon’s talk All the small things ?

[badis93]

My team would also benefit from this.