Breadcrumb

A breadcrumb indicates the location of the user within a navigation's hierarchy.

Usage

When to use

Use a breadcrumb in the following cases:

When the app has more than two navigation levels.
When there is a large amount of hierarchically structured content.

General construction

A breadcrumb consists of the following elements:

breadcrumb-usage-construction — 1. Clickable item, 2. Separator, 3. Not clickable item (optional), 4. Current page (optional)

1. Clickable item

Each item represents a single section in a hierarchical path.
A clickable item contains a link to its corresponding page in the hierarchy. The text of the item is the same as the title of the destination page.

2. Separator

It separates the breadcrumb items from each other.

3. Not clickable item (optional)

A not clickable item is a structural container in the hierarchy which is not reachable by the user.

4. Current page (optional)

The current page is the last item of the breadcrumb.
It is a not clickable item.

Behavior

The path shows every level from the first page of the application to the current page.

Interaction

A clickable item contains a link to a page.

breadcrumb-usage-behavior-item-clickable — Pointer over clickable item

A not clickable item is just a structural level without reachable content.

breadcrumb-usage-behavior-item-not-clickable — Default cursor over not clickable item

The last item of a breadcrumb can indicate the current page. If so it is not clickable and displays the current page’s title.

breadcrumb-usage-behavior-item-current — Default cursor over current page item

A separator is not clickable.

Placement

The breadcrumb is usually located in the app header bar. It is placed above the page title.

breadcrumb-usage-behavior-position — Breadcrumb in a content header

Do’s & Don’ts

Show a breadcrumb only when hierarchical navigation is possible.
Do not use a breadcrumb if the navigation’s hierarchy contains only one level.

Style

This chapter shows several breadcrumb styles in the User Experience Toolkit.

Overview

Item states

breadcrumb-style-overview-item-states2 — 1. clickable, 2. not clickable (structural container), 3. not clickable (current page)

Examples

breadcrumb-style-overview-example1 — Breadcrumb with three clickable items and current page

breadcrumb-style-overview-example2 — Breadcrumb without current page

Typography

The following table gives reference to the different font sizes and weights:

Name	State	Font-family	Font-size	Line-height	Text-align	Modification
Item	default	Siemens Sans Roman	14px	20px	left
Item	mouseover, pressed	Siemens Sans Roman	14px	20px	left	Underline

Sizing and spacing

The following measurements show the dimensions for this component:

breadcrumb-style-sizing-item — Sizing for breadcrumb

To see a detailed explanation of all existing helper and size classes, please refer to the usage table below.
Due to technical limitations, this CSS implementation does not support breadcrumb items ending in special characters.

Breadcrumb

<ul class="breadcrumb">
    <li class="breadcrumb__item">
        <a href="#">List Breadcrumb 1</a>
    </li>
    <li class="breadcrumb__item">
        <a href="#">List Breadcrumb 2</a>
    </li>
    <li class="breadcrumb__item">
        <a href="#">List Breadcrumb 3</a>
    </li>
    <li class="breadcrumb__item is-current">
        List Breadcrumb 4
    </li>
</ul>

<div class="breadcrumb">
    <div class="breadcrumb__item">
        <a href="#">Breadcrumb 1</a>
    </div>
    <div class="breadcrumb__item">
        Breadcrumb 2
    </div>
    <div class="breadcrumb__item">
        <a href="#">Breadcrumb 3</a>
    </div>
    <div class="breadcrumb__item is-current">
        <a href="#">Breadcrumb 4</a>
    </div>
</div>

Breadcrumb overflow variants

<div class="breadcrumb">
    <div class="breadcrumb__item">
        <a href="#">Breadcrumb 1</a>
    </div>
    <div class="breadcrumb__item">
        Breadcrumb 2
    </div>
    <div class="breadcrumb__item">
        <a href="#">Breadcrumb 3</a>
    </div>
    <div class="breadcrumb__item">
        <a href="#">Breadcrumb 4</a>
    </div>
    <div class="breadcrumb__item">
        <a href="#">Breadcrumb 5</a>
    </div>
    <div class="breadcrumb__item">
        <a href="#">Breadcrumb 6</a>
    </div>
    <div class="breadcrumb__item">
        <a href="#">Breadcrumb 7</a>
    </div>
    <div class="breadcrumb__item is-current">
        <a href="#">Breadcrumb X</a>
    </div>
</div>

<div class="breadcrumb breadcrumb--centered">
    <div class="breadcrumb__item">
        <a href="#">Breadcrumb 1</a>
    </div>
    <div class="breadcrumb__item">
        Breadcrumb 2
    </div>
    <div class="breadcrumb__item">
        <a href="#">Breadcrumb 3</a>
    </div>
    <div class="breadcrumb__item">
        <a href="#">Breadcrumb 4</a>
    </div>
    <div class="breadcrumb__item">
        <a href="#">Breadcrumb 5</a>
    </div>
    <div class="breadcrumb__item">
        <a href="#">Breadcrumb 6</a>
    </div>
    <div class="breadcrumb__item">
        <a href="#">Breadcrumb 7</a>
    </div>
    <div class="breadcrumb__item is-current">
        <a href="#">Breadcrumb X</a>
    </div>
</div>

<div class="breadcrumb breadcrumb--right">
    <div class="breadcrumb__item">
        <a href="#">Breadcrumb 1</a>
    </div>
    <div class="breadcrumb__item">
        Breadcrumb 2
    </div>
    <div class="breadcrumb__item">
        <a href="#">Breadcrumb 3</a>
    </div>
    <div class="breadcrumb__item">
        <a href="#">Breadcrumb 4</a>
    </div>
    <div class="breadcrumb__item">
        <a href="#">Breadcrumb 5</a>
    </div>
    <div class="breadcrumb__item">
        <a href="#">Breadcrumb 6</a>
    </div>
    <div class="breadcrumb__item">
        <a href="#">Breadcrumb 7</a>
    </div>
    <div class="breadcrumb__item is-current">
        <a href="#">Breadcrumb X</a>
    </div>
</div>

Usage

Element	Class	Description
`.breadcrumb .breadcrumb__item`	Or any tag with `.is-current`	Visually styles the currently selected / active breadcrumb item.
`.breadcrumb`	`.breadcrumb--centered`	"Cuts off" the breadcrumbs item between first and last breadcrumb item, shortened with ellipsis.
`.breadcrumb`	`.breadcrumb--right`	"Cuts off" the breadcrumbs item on the right, shortened with ellipsis.

Content header