Disabling a feature until a button is pressed

Question

So I'm creating a dashboard that will allow users to sort through by date as long as the "live monitoring" feature is paused. I created 2 buttons, one for the pause/unpause feature and one for the "sort by date" feature. I am wondering if users will be able to tell that the buttons are dependent on each other in order to be used (User must pause before being able to sort)

Is there a better way to let users understand that these two buttons are related to each other while keeping the two features separated?

Answer 1

Associate buttons visually

This question only makes sense in a context and this answer is in reference to this context. Out of this context there are only four buttons: the question makes no sense at all and there is no possible answer other than putting the buttons closer together. I propose to study in depth the Gestalt laws and try to put them into practice.

In context:

Gestalt law of proximity

Objects or shapes that are close to one another appear to form groups

Gestalt law of similarity

Perception lends itself to seeing stimuli that physically resemble each other as part of the same object

Gestalt law of common region

When objects are located within the same closed region, we perceive them as being grouped together

Gestalt law of closure

When we look at a complex arrangement of visual elements, we tend to look for a single, recognizable pattern.

_{More about Gestalt Laws}

Answer 2

Keeping the laws of proximity and common region in mind, I would suggest using a switch instead of a button for pausing and unpausing live monitoring.

Why?

• The switch is a better pattern for turning things on and off.
• It takes up less space so you could group it with the dropdown.