elastic / elastic/docs-builder

Restore and redesign “Most Popular” sidebar

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#1,328 4 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
ai-triaged ai:eng-question ai:product-question ai:ux-question feature
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C#
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1d 7h
Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

## Description
When we launched Elastic Docs v3, the "Most Popular" sidebar, which is surfaced through the Marketing team, was removed. This section helped users quickly find high-traffic, high-value content and was particularly useful for new users trying to navigate the docs. The current default sidebar is static and does not provide helpful entry points or guidance.

![Image](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/6291036b-303b-48c0-b312-ae07116054b1)

We need to restore a version of the "Most Popular" sidebar with a refreshed design and thoughtful content strategy. This should also consider the future integration of onboarding and getting-started content.

## Goals

- Reintroduce the “Most Popular” or “Trending” sidebar to improve discoverability of key content.
- Provide a curated or data-driven list of frequently visited or essential pages.
- Make space for onboarding-related content in the future (e.g., getting started guides, tutorials, “Start here” links).

## Requirements

- Design exploration for the sidebar (placement, behavior, style)
- Analytics-informed or curated list of top docs
- Mechanism to regularly update or auto-populate the list
- Optional: tag or bucket content for new users, such as “New to Elastic?” or “Get Started”

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