Sticky Headers: 5 Ways to Make Them Better

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Page Laubheimer says that if you’re going to do a sticky header…

  1. Keep it small.
  2. Visually contrast it with the rest of the page.
  3. If it’s going to move, keep it minimal. (I’d say, respect prefers-reduced-motion.)
  4. Consider “partially persistent headers.” (Jemima Abu calls it a Smart Navbar.)
  5. Actually, maybe don’t even do it.

I generally like the term “sticky” header, because it implies you should use position: sticky for them, which I think you should. It used to be done with position: fixed, but that was trickier to pull off since the header would move in-and-out of flow of the document. Using sticky positioning helps reserve that space automatically without JavaScript or magic numbers.

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