For questions regarding when or whether to disable certain functions or controls in an interface or how to communicate the disabled state to the user.
4
votes
5answers
85 views
indicate a “mode” that is not changeable by the user
My deployment app has 2 modes: Local and Remote. The mode used depends on where the app is being launched. Once the app has been launched the user can't change the mode. However I still want to ...
2
votes
2answers
83 views
What is the best way to demonstrate the value of registration to unlock features?
I'm not sure if I phrased that right, so perhaps my specific case will explain for me. I have buttons for "fave"-ing and marking-as-solved on puzzles in my blog. The users that know the features exist ...
13
votes
6answers
518 views
Greyed-Out vs Invisible
What is a good criterion or rule-of-thumb for determining when a control should be greyed-out and when should it be completely invisible?
5
votes
1answer
104 views
Should user be notified about technically unavailable features?
I'm going to implement a non-essential feature on a website. This feature will not be available for all browsers and, therefore, all users.
Should I just hide the button that activates it? Or should ...
3
votes
2answers
220 views
How to tell a customer his/her profile is not allowed to make use of a specific service?
I am facing the following problem:
We provide multiple financial services to all sort of profiles (retail & business).
Some profiles (reached a certain age and risky profiles) are not allowed to ...
3
votes
2answers
115 views
Why don't applications explain reason for greyed-out icons/menu options? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Don’t hide or disable menu items?
I think applications should explain why an option of clickable icon is greyed-out i.e. not selectable or not active. For example a ...
4
votes
2answers
318 views
disabling the zoom in functionality on an iPad due to fixed navigational elements
I have an iPad-specific website which has had the "zoom-in" feature disabled on it as I have horizontal and vertical fixed navigational elements that I do not want to go out of view.
I would like to ...
5
votes
3answers
162 views
Should the user be able to press disabled buttons on a touch screen?
I'm designing a touchscreen app and there are certain scenarios when the server cannot be reached, a printer is disabled, etc. that will disable a button (like the print button).
My question is: if ...
0
votes
3answers
162 views
Should we show/hide/disable functional buttons based on state? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Should disabled options ever be hidden?
I'm currently working with a project team that has a requirement to make additional reports/data available to end-users with a ...
7
votes
2answers
351 views
Inactive State of buttons, to hide or not to hide…that is the question
On a windows based LOB application for data capturing. Is it better to hide a button completely when it is inactive, or simply show a disabled state for the button.
4
votes
3answers
460 views
hide vs disable and redistribute empty space
I have complex UI form dialog with ~12 tabs and want to decide what is best:
enable/disable (gray out) fields - classic convention
hide/show if not necessary - could be confusing + jumping GUI
hide ...
7
votes
5answers
2k views
Disabling submit-button until the user has completed the form
How do you think about disabling the submit-button until the user has completed the form or the required fields?
I find similar questions here on ux.se and somebody answered that the user will think ...
47
votes
10answers
4k views
Refusing a user permission to click a URL
I've been asked to work on a system message on an intranet where by there are various URLs (linking to lists of content) that have permission rights attached to them, so only certain users have access ...
8
votes
3answers
171 views
If there is a known error in a feature should we warn our users or just turn off the feature?
In this example, Facebook Connect (technically Facebook Login) has an open bug that prevents IE8 users from connecting. It send error messages, and it isn't clear to users that the error is with ...
3
votes
6answers
234 views
Why do some webmasters INSIST on having auto-playing music elements on their webpages? [closed]
Is there any positive reason why someone might implement an auto-playing audio feature onto a webpage? I seem to see it all the time, especially on band pages and so on. The frustrating thing is ...
29
votes
4answers
2k views
Don't hide or disable menu items?
In 2008, Joel Spolsky wrote:
A long time ago, it became fashionable, even recommended, to disable
menu items when they could not be used.
Don't do this. Users see the disabled menu item ...
13
votes
7answers
1k views
Disable the save button until changes are made?
We have a list of complicated things, which the user can click on to get a new view in which they can edit all the details stored for that thing.
The edit view already has a Cancel exit mechanism ...
2
votes
4answers
217 views
Disable combobox with one entry?
Imagine an arbitrary list of items. To execute a command, the user has to select one of these items in a combobox (if there are no items, the combobox is not shown at all). Should the combobox be ...
11
votes
5answers
320 views
Button placement while others ones are invisible/disabled
I have a tool bar of buttons. The state changes every time user interact with it (fig. 1).
Fig. 1
Sometimes application allows user to refresh view only, so other buttons are invisible (fig. 2).
...
5
votes
4answers
302 views
Disabled buttons while long running task
My application has a toolbar and a lot of buttons on it. Some buttons start a long running processes(tasks). At this moment every task executes asynchronously to allow user to do something else while ...
5
votes
3answers
266 views
Preventing impossible clicks
I've posted a discussion on MSO with the same title (but the title was changed). It's about disabling elements that can be clicked but lead nowhere. For instance dead links. Currently, the 404 error ...
14
votes
6answers
2k views
Disabled submit button on form vs allow submit then show errors?
We have a few different forms as part of a web-based medical application. These forms have quite a few fields - 10-20 depending on the form. Each has at least 5 or so required fields. We currently ...
4
votes
3answers
235 views
Disabling navigation links in a wizard style interface (but not visually), is this an accepted practice?
While doing research for a current software project, I have come across Ford's car builder web application. It has a wizard style navigation across the top, and disables future links until the first 2 ...
10
votes
6answers
2k views
Hide or disable form options? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Don't hide or disable menu items?
On a create/edit form, where the options available to the end user will depend on their previous input, in order to give the user ...
2
votes
1answer
116 views
How to represent an ignore option for a control such as a ListBox
In this application there are several screens that guide a user through filling out criteria meant to complete specific queries. In order to facilitate the selection of multiple items we have created ...
12
votes
6answers
907 views
Should disabled options ever be hidden?
Comments from this question prompted me with this other usability proposal. In my opinion, tt's a bad idea to hide disabled options.
I like to see all the available options regardless whether some ...
3
votes
4answers
477 views
Dynamic required field validation
Let say we have a form with 50 or so elements. It is a data entry form and is in the format the user is expecting based on standardized industry paperwork.
My question is should required fields ...
21
votes
13answers
1k views
Is it better to prevent a forbidden action or display an error/explanation message?
There are multiple examples, so I'll pick a specific one to focus the question.
Let's say a user can have specific characteristics (or permissions):
Admin, Virtual, External, Financial, etc.
To ...
