Design patterns for desktop context switching

Question

I'm working on a project which has, mobile / tablet / desktop designs which progressively reveal more content.

In our app we have two key 'modes'. It's similar to an online ide so you could call these modes, editor and visualiser as an example.

In the mobile design it seems logical to have a context switcher as a persistent navigation option. Similar to say Spotify and Twitter mobile apps bottom bar navigation

Whilst we could do this in the desktop version as well, there is more space and I think there could be some desktop specific UX patterns for context switching but not knowing any specific names I'm finding this hard to research.

Does anyone know of any desktop patterns for context switching an app?

Answer 1

As much as it pains me to say it, The common pattern for a context switch on desktop is often a "tab". Its actually very similar to the persistent nav fixed to the bottom of a mobile viewport in function but the styling is different.

Alternatively, have you considered displaying both contexts at the same time with a split screen or preview window?