Paul you're touching on context, and I beleive talking about "Apples VS Oranges":
For instance, (this is exactly what we're presently dealing with): Case 1 - different entities within a screen, (for a single logged in user): In "Table X" different employees are displayed in rows. There is a superset of options for all employees. When one employee is selected only a subset of options are available >> In this case I would "disable" the "non-actionable" buttons Case 2 - different users with different access rights to the system: When "User - lower access rights" logs in, they only have access to a subset of the total options, (they can never access "option A" lets say) They also see "Table X" Options which are "always" unaccessible for this user should not display >> In this case "Option A" button never displays for this "User - lower access rights" Case 1 has multiple "entities" for a single logged in user Case 2 has multiple "access rights" for different logged in user types On 7/2/08, Paul Eisen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > That list sounds right, Rich, and consistent with the GUI-design guidelines > of yesteryear (ahhh...the days when applications were just applications and > didn't need a "Web 2.0" moniker to make them sound rich and interactive). > > A more generalized rule can be stated: > Disable (gray out) options that are sometimes available to a particular > user, but not in the current context. > Hide options that are never available to a particular user. > > The latter point is important when considering features to which not all > user roles have access. Leaving those showing but disabled can be > frustrating. > > Paul Eisen > Principal User Experience Architect > tandemseven > > > > -- > Joseph Rich Rogan > President UX/UI Inc. > http://www.jrrogan.com ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
