I'd have to agree with what I believe all this threads comments are pointing
to (and add that this is what we're doing in our app, with great user
feedback), - it's better to disable a button when this functionality is not
available then:
1. Hide it, or
2. Leave it visually enabled but thru user intervention the user discovers
it is actually "disabled".
Guru's can be wrong, (often), and assumptions should be challenged. Not to
mention there's often a good reason, (in context), to do something which
otherwise would seem counter intuitive.
On 7/1/08, Jeff Garbers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> I was surprised at this comment by Joel also. The best solution, as far as
> I'm concerned, is to have items be disabled -- don't expect users to select
> things just to be told why they don't work -- but offer a tool tip showing
> why the item is disabled if you hover over it or select it. The code
> already knows why the thing's disabled.
>
> I was also surprised at a comment by John Gruber ("Daring Fireball") on
> this:
>
> Spolsky's suggestion is also predicated on the assumption that the user is
>> stupid. Better is to assume that the user is clever and curious and will be
>> able to figure out for themself why a certain command is currently disabled.
>>
>
> Yeah, that's it. If people don't know why some command is disabled, they
> must be stupid. Clever and curious users will be EAGER to explore for
> several minutes trying to figure out why the command is disabled. It's like
> a game - who wouldn't want to play?
>
>
--
Joseph Rich Rogan
President UX/UI Inc.
http://www.jrrogan.com
________________________________________________________________
Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)!
To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe
List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines
List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
