[Psi-devel] Re: recent Remote Control, Execute Command, AdHoc work

Alex L. Mauer hawke at hawkesnest.net
Sun Jun 26 12:48:01 PDT 2005


Trejkaz wrote:

> Besides, disabling menu items is "considered harmful" in itself.  When a menu 
> option is greyed out, the user has no idea why it's greyed out, so they can't 
> even figure out how to use it.  

This strikes me as wrong, since if the menu item isn't there at all the 
user has no idea that it's even a possibility.  It damages the 
discoverability of the interface even more than greying it out.

> I remember reading a paper on that subject, 
> which asked designers to make all options actionable, but to pop up an 
> informative dialog to describe exactly why the action couldn't be performed 
> at the time it was requested.

Better than removing the item completely, but then you don't have a 
quick view of which items you can actually use...ick.
-- 
Bad - You get pulled over for doing 90 in a school zone and you're drunk 
off your ass again at three in the afternoon.
Worse - The cop is drunk too, and he's a mean drunk.
FUCK! - A mean drunk that's actually a swarm of semi-sentient 
flesh-eating beetles.
gpg/gpg key id: 51192FF2 @ subkeys.pgp.net
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