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I am considering to design an icon based menu and to use the classic pattern: inactive, hover-state and selected.

However, I would like the user to be able to click on a menu element even if the state is active/selected, in order to toggle the displayed contents.

Is it a good practice to allow the user to click on an active/selected element?

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    So, 'click to select' and then when selected it's 'click to toggle'?
    – JonW ♦
    Oct 31, 2013 at 11:23
  • yes, that would be the pattern.
    – Rdpi
    Oct 31, 2013 at 11:33
  • For what platform? Touch, Desktop, Web?
    – JOG
    Oct 31, 2013 at 12:03
  • it's for a web application
    – Rdpi
    Oct 31, 2013 at 12:21
  • Honestly, I do not see the use case here. Could you please include what the "displayed contents" in the menu is, how come a selection in a menu does not expand, and what the menu looks like?
    – JOG
    Oct 31, 2013 at 15:26

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Sure, it's a fine practice. The pattern is a "toggle button." A common example used by millions of people is formatting text. Check out this example from Gmail:

gmail compose toggle button

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