The Purpose of Sidebars

Even though some site designs do not use sidebars, sidebars can be of great benefit to the user as they traverse your site. Three particular benefits include providing easier navigation, especially through a large site; creating a “boxed out” space to share additional information; and providing the opportunity to make a relational connection to someone responsible for the ministry described on the page.

Navigation

A sidebar is, first and foremost, a navigational device. Sidebars help the users see where they are in the context of the information architecture of your system. 

Sharing Common Information

An important secondary role that sidebars play is that they provide a space to share information that may be related to a number of different Pages, without having to enter that information redundantly on every single Page. An example might be Children's Ministry. There might be multiple pages of information about that ministry - Sunday School, VBS, Nursery Care, After School Programs. The same sidebar can be assigned to all of those pages, showing Children’s Ministry Events, Registration Forms, and Photo releases. This saves having to maintain these links or this information redundantly AND it ensures that someone who is looking at any content having to do with Children’s Ministry sees the associated Events and necessary forms.

Making a Relational Connection

A third role sidebars can play is to associate a particular person with a ministry. In terms of forming relational connections, it is often helpful for users to see a face and have immediate access to contact information on the page where the description of a particular ministry is located.

Sidebar Information

1:1 Relationship Between Pages and Sidebars

It is important to know that a Page can only be assigned ONE sidebar. This means that no matter how someone navigates to that Page - from a high-level or drop-down menu option, from a parent page, from a sidebar link, or from a hyperlink, the Page is the same and the sidebar, and the information it shows, is the same.

What information that can be included in a Sidebar?

People - a sidebar can display any person you’ve created in the MV People module. This could be a clergy or staff person, or other ministry leader that you’ve defined. Information displayed includes their picture, and any contact information and/or biographical information you’ve entered.

Menu/Contextual Menu - the menu is navigation that shows the page in the context of its parent and sibling pages. If the page is part of a simple hierarchy of information, a sidebar can be automatically generated (a Contextual Menu). If the page appears in in a more networked information architecture, ie, the page appears under more than one high level menus, then we will need to define a Menu so that it shows up in all the appropriate sidebars. 

Events - all Events, specifically tagged Events, or manually selected Events can feed to a sidebar. Once an Event has occurred it will disappear from the sidebar. The sidebar setting can be adjusted so ALL occurrences of a recurring Event appear OR only the next occurrence appears.

Tagged Posts - specifically tagged or manually selected Posts can feed the sidebar. Posts can remain in the sidebar indefinitely and are only supplanted when a more current Post occurs or the Post expires based on how expiration settings have been established.

Text - this might include hyperlinked buttons to other parts of the site, such as a link to a newsletter subscription, or uploaded PDFs of meeting minutes or forms.

Podcast - specific Recordings of podcasts can be fed to the sidebar. They can be the latest recordings of a particular podcast or they can be filtered by a particular speaker or date. Common examples include sermons and worship music.

Calendar - this allows a Google calendar feed to the sidebar. Depending on how the calendar is established, data may be specific to a particular ministry.

Slides - this works best for simple sites with few pages under the high level menu options. It displays images in the sidebar that are generated from the front page slides and that are linked in the same way the front page slides are linked.

How many sidebars do I need?
There isn’t a right or wrong answer to this question. You could use the same standard sidebar on every single page on your site. You could define a unique sidebar for every single page on your site. You should find a happy balance between these two extremes! 

• Define as many sidebars as you need in order to convey the distinct information associated with different pages or groups of pages, but not so many that it becomes difficult to manage or keep track of all of them.
• Use sidebars to reduce redundant copying and pasting the same content on pages related to the same content area.
• Use sidebars to emphasize or differentiate dynamic content, such as Posts and Events, from related static or evergreen page content.
• Start with the Standard Sidebar.

Every site has a standard sidebar defined. At minimum this will include a Contextual Menu, showing any other pages under the same parent page. Any other components may be added to the standard sidebar including information or links – for example, worship times, sermon links, newsletter signup – that could be included on any Page. 

Any Page that is created and does not have an assigned sidebar will default to the Standard Sidebar.

Considering Sidebars under each High Level Menu Option

Often a good place to start is to consider how one sidebar might correspond to each of your high level menu options. You can then assign a dedicated sidebar to all (or some) of the pages under each high level menu. As you consider each page under a particular menu, you can decide how curated to get with each sidebar. 

Here are some examples of different sidebars, the different information they share, and where they are being used:

Pages Under the Same High Level May Use Different Sidebars
Sidebar to Feature Podcasts/Music
Sidebar to Share Information about a Particular Committee
Sidebar to Share Information about a Standalone Ministry