The other thing I'd add to this discussion is to consider the bigger picture about what it tells you about your design if a particular menu item is unavailable.
If it is obvious to your user why the item is unavailable, then you probably have a good design. "Of course Save is grayed out right now, since I have no file open." If it is not obvious, then it may still be the right thing to grey it out, but before going that route, the first thing should be to ask yourself if this is telling you that you have the wrong design. For example: - Is it simply greyed out because it would take the programmers a little longer to make it work in a particular scenario? Is that scenario useful to your users? - If it's greyed out because the item is only available in a different mode, should you simply enable the menu item and have it automatically switch to the other mode for the user? E.g. imagine a special preview mode which doesn't allow editing. Question 1 might be whether you should in fact allow editing in the preview mode. If not, it's worth asking yourself if editing-related menu items should be greyed out, or if they should be enabled and just take you out of preview mode when selected. There, the right answer might be whether the user would expect or be taken aback by it switching out of preview mode. - If it isn't simple and obvious for users to get to the state where the menu item is enabled, does it mean your entire design is too complex? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=31032 ________________________________________________________________ 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
