Re: Hiding and Disabling Menu Items

On Jul 1, 2008, at 5:02 PM, Dan Saffer wrote:

> I'd rather set the users' expectations correctly than to have them  
> click on a menu item and have a pop up appear telling them why they  
> can't do that. A really long tooltip: "If you want to Paste an  
> object, first you need to unlock this layer." is definitely better,  
> but could have tons of conditionals.


I agree with you. Sure, there could be a lot of conditions, but they  
are known, so custom messages can be displayed for as many as need  
be. And, the length of the tooltip can be mitigated by wordsmithing.

Now, if you are creating a web app in which you have free reign over  
the UI (i.e. not tied to OS-specific widgets), you could add a small  
help icon beside disabled menu items that could open a pop-up, rather  
than a tooltip.

Jack



Jack L. Moffett
Interaction Designer
inmedius
412.459.0310 x219
http://www.inmedius.com


Design is a process -
an intimate collaboration between
engineers, designers, and clients.

                                - Henry Dreyfuss

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