Use case or problem
First Problem : At present, all the sidebar sections such Files, Search, BookMarks, etc or in the right side sections are in Dock Pinned mode. So once the user opens them, they will occupy the width set by user and the rest of the tabs shrinks and adjusts themselves. And then the user will require to close the section by again clicking on the Collapse button manually.
Second problem : When user will install a lot of plugins, they will have their specific section tabs on the right-side or left-side section. For specifically Left-side section, it looks very cumbersome and also a very bad practice in-terms of UX methodology, where user is required to first Expand the Right-side section, then scroll in horizontal direction to search the specific Icon and then open that section, as can be seen in below image :
Proposed solution
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A new setting option to ask users whether they want the default behavior as it is right now or need a new Ribbon Bar on the right-side.
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This new Ribbon Bar on the right side, will contain only the sections Icons. After pressing these icons from this ribbon, it will open that specific section and now user can right-click on this icon or the heading of this section to make it either Pinned (so it remains opened similar to the way it is now). Or another option will be Unpinned, where, once the user has made the interactions/operations, the side section should automatically collapse back. This can be easily understood from the Tool Window View Mode in Intellij software as can be seen below :
The other features can be implemented based on the user requests, such as Docked Unpinned, Float, Window.
Current workaround (optional)
For the First problem, I would love to know if there is any workaround to make the section slide in from the right side, and once user clicks anywhere outside the section, it should collapse. Just like the GitHub Projects Kanban Board, where Issues are opened as a pop-up which slides from the right side, as can be seen in the below image :
- The Sidebar Expand on Hover kind of gives the functionality of opening the sidebar on hover and then automatically closes it, but again, the sidebar is in Pinned Undock view, so if the sidebar width is set to 50% of the screen, then all the tabs will shrink in an unpleasant way. Few people might love this.