Tabs (UI)

Tabs work when the panels are peers — different views of one thing, where a person wants one at a time and rarely needs two at once. A user record with Profile, Activity, Billing and Permissions is a good fit: same object, parallel facets, no reading order. The pattern breaks the moment the panels are sequential steps (that is a stepper) or the moment somebody needs to compare across two of them, because tabs make comparison impossible by design.

Two failures account for most broken tab implementations. The first is hiding content people need to find: anything inside a tab is invisible to Ctrl+F and, on many implementations, to search engines. The second is state — switching tabs should not lose a half-filled form, and the selected tab should be in the URL so a link goes where the sender is looking. Add keyboard support (arrow keys between tabs, Tab into the panel) and most of the remaining complaints disappear.

Tabs vs accordion

Tabs suit a handful of peer views on a wide screen and show exactly one at a time. An accordion suits a longer list of sections, lets a person open several at once, and survives narrow screens where a tab row would wrap or scroll. Over roughly six items, or on mobile, the accordion is usually the honest choice.