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> Also, the "magical" appearance and disappearance of these items doesn't help the ability to form a stable mental model. I've observed that any kind of "mode"

> Also, the "magical" appearance and disappearance of these items doesn't help the ability to form a stable mental model. I've observed that any kind of "mode" that isn't extremely clear, visually is terrible for these sorts of folks (and, as with most things that give them trouble, are really terrible for everyone, we're just better at working past it than they are). Tabs that aren't extremely visually clear will leave these users "stuck" on the wrong one without realizing there even are tabs; filters or searches that don't make it super clear that you're "in" a filter or search will make them wonder where the hell all their stuff went, that kind of thing.

masswerk 5y ago
> and, as with most things that give them trouble, are really terrible for everyone, we're just better at working past it than they are A nice example are non-modal security dialogs in web browsers: You initiate an action, which requires expressed acknowledgement to complete. The dialog is blocking, therefor requiring immediate response for the task not to stall. However, there's just a narrow ribbon sitting at the top of the content window waiting to be either acknowledged (probably requiring to initiate said task anew) or to be eventually dismissed by clicking its close button. This isn't natural to anyone, nor does it go with the flow of events, nor does it disclose itself easily to the uninitiated, nor does the addition of yet another element in the vertical flow of layout communicate the urgency and why the task is currently failing. – It's understandable that some users will give up at this instant and will therefor be locked out from using certain applications.