The Tools->Configure Toolbars dialog in many KDE apps looks like this when the Breeze icons and style is used:



Note how the buttons marked with green are enabled and the red one is disabled. Depending on contrast settings the difference is invisible or almost invisible.

A small challenge: any ideas how to improve that?

I suppose the question is whether we would need to show a disabled button at all? How useful is knowing that a button is disabled? Could it not be made invisible and then visible again when it is able to be used?

davidwright wrote:I suppose the question is whether we would need to show a disabled button at all? How useful is knowing that a button is disabled? Could it not be made invisible and then visible again when it is able to be used?

Hm, that would interfere with predictability. Disabled buttons should be shown and offer a tooltip telling thwe user why they're disabled, so they always know what's going on.

Good catch jstaniek. We should probably just reduce the opacity a bit more than we currently do, unless someone has another idea.

- Blurring icons
- Striking text

A purely random ideas

About hiding disabled elements: suppose an entire viewport was disabled and gets enabled... re-layouting the entire window =)
I doubt that's a reasonable approach.

colomar wrote:
Hm, that would interfere with predictability. Disabled buttons should be shown and offer a tooltip telling thwe user why they're disabled, so they always know what's going on.

Perhaps. I was more thinking along the lines of which is more frustrating to a user; to be led into a room with only a locked door, or one with no door at all?

luebking wrote:
About hiding disabled elements: suppose an entire viewport was disabled and gets enabled... re-layouting the entire window =)
I doubt that's a reasonable approach.

Certainly if it involved jumping UI elements then clearly it's not a good idea; however it does work very well for online forms (tick a 'yes' and other questions appear below etc.), so I am wondering if these elements could be better designed without resorting to having dead buttons littering the real estate.

davidwright wrote:Certainly if it involved jumping UI elements then clearly it's not a good idea; however it does work very well for online forms (tick a 'yes' and other questions appear below etc.), so I am wondering if these elements could be better designed without resorting to having dead buttons littering the real estate.

It does make sense in forms, but usually a user sees a specific form very rarely (many of them only once), so expectancy isn't an issue there. However if a UI which you see regularly suddenly has a button missing, that's confusing. If it's greyed out and a tooltip tells you why, you know what's happening.

colomar wrote:

davidwright wrote:Certainly if it involved jumping UI elements then clearly it's not a good idea; however it does work very well for online forms (tick a 'yes' and other questions appear below etc.), so I am wondering if these elements could be better designed without resorting to having dead buttons littering the real estate.

It does make sense in forms, but usually a user sees a specific form very rarely (many of them only once), so expectancy isn't an issue there. However if a UI which you see regularly suddenly has a button missing, that's confusing. If it's greyed out and a tooltip tells you why, you know what's happening.

You do not see dead buttons in the mobile space (at least I haven't on the apps I use), and in many cases as the screen shrinks, the more like a webform the UI becomes. Looking at the initial screen shot, is that an optimal layout if we were looking at a convergent experience?

FYI; I am playing devils advocate here, a role I very much like as it places me in an uncomfortable position mentally, and forces me to think.

davidwright wrote:You do not see dead buttons in the mobile space (at least I haven't on the apps I use), and in many cases as the screen shrinks, the more like a webform the UI becomes. Looking at the initial screen shot, is that an optimal layout if we were looking at a convergent experience?

FYI; I am playing devils advocate here, a role I very much like as it places me in an uncomfortable position mentally, and forces me to think.

On mobile, the situation is a bit different because
1) There is no mouseover so no easy way to show tooltips
2) You want to conserve as much space as possible
3) Re-layouting is more frequent due to space restrictions, so spacial orientation isn't such a big factor