Adaptive Form Layouts: Nested Layouts

Once you have a handle on the individual layout patterns you can start creating more interactive layouts by leveraging nested layouts. Regardless for the initial layout that you have selected you are able to use any panel layout for a child layout. This opens a variety of different configurations that can be utilized to create the best design for your content.

Nested layouts allow for a more granular organization of the different sections of your form. It may be better to break up a large section into smaller more digestible sub sections within a main section to improve the experience for the end user. 

Having a strong understanding of the benefits of each individual layout will allow you to understand how having combined layouts can be more useful. There may be times where having the same type of layout for both the parent and child layouts are beneficial. can be more streamlined and intuitive, but there may also be times where another section should be visible along with the different sections.

Just because you can nest any layout under another doesn’t mean that you should. This brings focus back to the idea what is the process for the end user? It is important to understand which steps are grouped together, what content is required to be done in what specific order and where users may run into problems. Having a strong understanding of what needs to be accessible at any given moment will help determine the most impactful layouts.

Layout designs take experience to know the best way to present information to an end user. Take the time to really understand how each of the individual layouts function and experiment with having a variety of different nest layouts. The possibilities are endless but that does mean that they can be overworked as well. Always consider the experience for the end user. Does this make sense? Is this complicated to digest? Is there something that could be done to make the process easier.