Should disabled options ever be hidden?

Question

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 are disabled. I don't want to see options appearing and disappearing on me because of certain conditions. I don't want to go "I swear I saw this menu option a minute ago... where the hell did it go?". Don't make me think. When the light bulb burns out, the light switch is still there. In the physical world, things don't disappear in thin air when they switch to a unusable condition.

Addition:

I am not making a blank sweeping statements that ALL options should visible. Obviously if your security role doesn't allow you to see an option you should never see it. I am talking about the same option going in and out in visibility due to actions taken by you.

Answer 1

I agree with this if the case is the user hasn't met certain requirements to enable the option. Like selecting text.

But I work with a lot of applications where options are disabled by role. In that case, this particular user will never be able to use those options, therefore, they shouldn't be visible to this user.

Answer 2

Greyed out options are teasers; users want to know how to reach those inaccessible options, thus encouraging deeper exploration of the app. If it concers a mac app, then it's best to follow the OSX HI Guidelines, which states:

When a menu item is unavailable—because it doesn’t apply to the selected object or to the selected object in its current state, or because nothing is selected, for example—the item should appear dimmed (gray) in the menu and is not highlighted when the user moves the pointer over it.

Answer 3

Tony, it's interesting that you took our opinions from the last question and spun them into a new question.

My non-answer is this: at work I've been saying all week—about some UI-design issues we're addressing—that we need to test our opinions by putting prototypes in front of users.

To all: does anyone have research data that disagrees with Tony's position ("Never hide disabled options") and, if so, would you tell us about the context?

Answer 4

I am sure there are scenarios in which this may not be feasible, or at least may make the UI clunky. However, in principle I do agree with you and think that this should be considered when developing a UI, but not as a rule.

Answer 5

Definitely not a rule, but I agree as well.

We made a set of hosted real estate tools, and our goal was to have as simple of a process as possible. Our "Create Listing" page looked exactly the same as the "Edit Listing" page, but without the section for attaching files (images/documents) and our users definitely found this frustrating. We ended up putting the sections in, but with a message saying "Please save your listing in order to upload your [images/files]"... Worked very well as a temporary fix while we added the ability.

Answer 6

I have categorize this 2 case:

1) If its disabled and user can not do anything about then is better to not show at all, or if you show it no need for tooltip.

2) If its disabled because you need from your user to select an option that is very near (eg above the button) then you need to tell him with a tool tip, please select your option then click on me.

Also there is one more that you need to decide for the control if you show it or not.

If the page/dialog layout is the same for many actions, then left the button there disabled, so the user not forget his place.

If the page/dialog layout is not the same and this action is just included in different dialogs, then you do not need to show him all the time. (eg you do not need to show to not loged user, that the is a button that is go you to backoffice but you need to logon first).

The buttons, or actions that do the same thinks on different pages, must be found on the same point of the page/dialog. Show this is a rule, so even some time if you prefer to not show something, then you need to keep his place clear.