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I mostly agree with this (and I'm convinced you're right about the posted software FWIW), but there are obvious counter-examples. It'd be weird and silly if you

by mcintyre1994 6y ago

I mostly agree with this (and I'm convinced you're right about the posted software FWIW), but there are obvious counter-examples. It'd be weird and silly if your comment here had a disabled "delete" button like my own, or if when I order an Uber I have a disabled "ban" button next to the driver. Out of interest do you know of any good reading on exactly when disable vs hide is better from a UX perspective? An idea that comes to mind is to disable when it's something the user can fix (eg. by logging in or asking someone for more permission), but that falls down with HN where you'd show disabled "delete" buttons on everything to non logged in users because logging in might enable some of them. It feels like there's some nuance there and it's not just common sense/obvious or the creator of this software wouldn't end up on the opposite side to you.

freedomben 6y ago
I very much agree, there is nuance to it. Just my opinion of course, but I think you're already on the right track. With something like HN where there may be buttons that only make sense for 2 users and there is basically nothing a "normal" person could ever do to make them enabled, hiding them is the appropriate thing to do. A less clear HN example is the down arrow. When I first came on I didn't realize anybody could downvote and was super confused when I would see people complaining about downvotes. It led me to believe that there must be a ton of moderators out there doing controversial things. Would have been totally cleared up with a disabled down button with a hover text saying, "You need 500 karma points to down vote." The example of a user who isn't logged in however, I think that case is mostly fine to hide things, so long as it's clear that you can log in. It's quite intuitive to have things be read only or dashboard mode without authenticating. But of course some of these rules go out the window depending on the audience. So long story short, I agree with you completely, there's a lot of nuance.

freedomben 6y ago

I very much agree, there is nuance to it. Just my opinion of course, but I think you're already on the right track. With something like HN where there may be buttons that only make sense for 2 users and there is basically nothing a "normal" person could ever do to make them enabled, hiding them is the appropriate thing to do. A less clear HN example is the down arrow. When I first came on I didn't realize anybody could downvote and was super confused when I would see people complaining about downvotes. It led me to believe that there must be a ton of moderators out there doing controversial things. Would have been totally cleared up with a disabled down button with a hover text saying, "You need 500 karma points to down vote." The example of a user who isn't logged in however, I think that case is mostly fine to hide things, so long as it's clear that you can log in. It's quite intuitive to have things be read only or dashboard mode without authenticating. But of course some of these rules go out the window depending on the audience. So long story short, I agree with you completely, there's a lot of nuance.