Secondary Navigation with Content Collections

Content Collections provide a powerful way to create secondary navigation on your YaleSites website. When you organize content into Collections, they become cohesive navigation sections that help your users find related information quickly. Collections allow your content to appear in both the main navigation and as secondary navigation elements, creating a more intuitive user experience.

Why Use Content Collections?

Content Collections enhance your YaleSites website by providing powerful organizational capabilities that benefit both site administrators and visitors. They offer several advantages:

  • Improved Content Organization: Collections help you group related pages logically under a common theme
  • Enhanced User Navigation: Secondary navigation gives site visitors clear pathways to discover your content
  • Greater Content Flexibility: Keep your main navigation clean and focused while still providing detailed sub-navigation options

How Content Collections Work

Content Collections generate secondary horizontal navigation that emulates our Basic Nav styling. This creates a consistent user experience while allowing for deeper navigation structures.

Creating a Content Collection

Step 1: Create a Landing Page

  1. Start with a page content type that will serve as your ‘landing page’
  2. This page will be the primary entry point for your collection

Step 2: Access Content Collection Settings

  1. While editing your landing page, look for “Manage Settings” in the right side menu
  2. Find the new section called “Content Collections”

Step 3: Configure Your Collection

You have three options:

  1. Create a new collection
    • Give your collection a descriptive name that reflects the content theme
    • Your current page will automatically be added to this collection
  2. Assign this page to an existing collection
    • Choose from collections you’ve already created
    • This helps build out navigation sections over time
  3. Add weight to a page in a content collection
    • Adjust the “weight” value to control the order of pages in your navigation
    • Lower numbers appear first, higher numbers appear later
    • Tip: You can also manually move content collection navigation items manually on the “Manage Content Collections” page under “Content”in the top admin bar.

Keep Your Navigation Minimal

While the system allows for unlimited navigation items, having too many top-level items in your Content Collections will cause the navigation to grow horizontally. This can create a poor user experience, especially on mobile devices. We strongly recommend keeping your top-level content collection navigation items to 5-7 or fewer to maintain clean, accessible navigation patterns.

Best Practices for Content Collections

For Content Organization:

  • Keep collections focused on clearly defined topics
  • Use descriptive names for your collections that match user expectations
  • Limit collection size to 5-7 items for optimal usability

For User Navigation:

  • Ensure your landing page provides a clear overview of all content in the collection
  • Use consistent naming patterns across your collections
  • Consider the mobile experience - secondary navigation should be equally usable on small screens

For Site Maintenance:

  • Regularly review your collections to ensure they remain relevant
  • Remove outdated content from collections rather than leaving broken links
  • When archiving content, consider whether it should be removed from collections first

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