[Sigia-l] Grayed Out Nav Elements vs. Changing Nav Menu

[Hernan Teano]

howdy,

i wondered if anyone has had experience with a navigation dilemma i'm
facing. the navigational menu in question is comprised of six elements,
which navigate to different content sub-features within a larger
feature. depending on the larger feature, there will be anywhere from
two to six of the nav elements available. the current implementation
shows all six elements all the time, and grays out any elements that
are unavailable.

it's been suggested that this is somewhat frustrating and possibly
confusing for users, not so much because they aren't getting that the
grayed out elements mean unavailable, but that we're showing them
what's not available in a very overt way. so we're considering the
option of only showing those nav elements that are available, and
removing completely any elements that aren't available. granted this
results in an ever-changing nav menu, in terms of appearance, as the
menu grows to as much as six elements and shrinks to as few as two, and
combinations in between, as users go from feature to feature. it's in
large part this inconsistency in menu behavior that led us to the
current implementation in the first place.

informal user testing of several dozen folks has led me to no decisive
conclusions, so if anyone can shed some light as to which direction
might serve the user better, i'd appreciate any insight.

thanks,
hernan

__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo
http://search.yahoo.com