No subject

top (which are text-based navigation elements) and graying out those
which were not available. So, if there was no top map available, the
"topo map" item would be grayed out. Even though it was grayed out,
users till persisted to click on it. They didn't seem to be able to
map this convention to a Web-based application - a convention that is
widely used in typical software applications. This created a point of
frustration from users. Several users even commented that if it wasn't
there we simply shouldn't show it.


Conversely, when the item that was not available was simply hidden,
then users expressed a lower frustration rate with the application. To
our surprise, users neither commented nor showed through their actions
that hiding options that became unavailable was confusing. Not only
did they appear not to have problems with this model, but it appeared
to be more intuitive to them. There wasn't any question as to whether
something would work or not. If it wasn't there, it wasn't an option.
Take the guess-work out.


This goes back to the belief that occasionally, we need to protect the
user from themselves. 


For something like Documentum, or an enterprise level application
where users are expected to "learn" how the application works, or
traditional software applications, I'm in favor of, and believe that
the best solution is to keep the navigation menus consistent in length
and appearance while using a grayed out model. This is mostly due to
basing current functionality on users' previous knowledge - build on
existing knowledge. Additionally, in the less-personalized office
arena, this seems to be more acceptable and users tend to expect this.


However, from our experience, in something that's abstracted like the
Web-based application described above, we've found that sometimes
show/hide is more appropriate. There are other times this is
appropriate, as David pointed out - business user vs. administrative
user interfaces - show what's appropriate. 



On Monday, April 21, 2003, at 03:48 PM, Dan Saffer wrote:


<excerpt>Todd, I'd be interested to hear any more detail you can give
us about

your user testing on this.


Aside from menu location, I think the other main argument for having

items remain grayed out is that it shows affordance: i.e. If the
context

was different (or you were in a different mode), you could do X.


Dan

</excerpt><fontfamily><param>Helvetica</param>

Cheers!


Todd R. Warfel


_//message first [method second]

-=========================-

User Experience Architect

Cornell University Lab of Ornithology

[P] (607) 254-2477

[F] (607) 254-2415

[E] todd.warfel at cornell.edu

-=========================-


In theory, theory and practice are the same,

but in practice, they're not.


The only thing necessary for evil to exist in the world is for good
men to do nothing.

</fontfamily>


--Apple-Mail-6--363647257--