Mysteriously dimmed menu items
AskTog's Bughouse is a list of beefs with recurring bad design in software. Bug #4 is Mysteriously dimmed menu items:
"Designers offer no way for users to discover why a given menu or option has been dimmed (grayed out), nor how to turn it back on."
The proposed fix:
"Make grayed-out objects clickable, revealing what has caused the object to be dimmed and what the user can do about it."
I think Paint Shop Pro deserves honorable mention for an even better solution. Not only does PSP tell the user what needs to be done to make a command possible, with the user's consent, it performs the necessary fix ups and then executes the intended the would-be unavailable command.
"Designers offer no way for users to discover why a given menu or option has been dimmed (grayed out), nor how to turn it back on."
The proposed fix:
"Make grayed-out objects clickable, revealing what has caused the object to be dimmed and what the user can do about it."
I think Paint Shop Pro deserves honorable mention for an even better solution. Not only does PSP tell the user what needs to be done to make a command possible, with the user's consent, it performs the necessary fix ups and then executes the intended the would-be unavailable command.
posted by metamerist at
7:15 AM
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