Should unauthorized actions in the UI be hidden, disabled, or result in an error? [closed]

Solution 1:

Hidden - This is the best approach for actions that are never available to the current user. There is no point in having the user waste mental effort figuring out why something is disabled if there is no action they can take to change this.

Disabled - This is the best approach for actions that are sometimes available, but not at the moment or in the current context. A disabled option should convey two things: first, the action is not available right now, and second, there is something the user could do to make the action available (change some setting or permission, select an item, enter prerequisite data, etc.). If you can indicate what needs to be done to enable the action in a tooltip - all the better. Enabling/disabling actions as the user enters data or changes context provides excellent feedback about what the program requires.

Fail with an Error - This is the worst choice. You should only resort to an error report for operations that might work: you can't tell that it will fail except by trying.

Solution 2:

As with nearly all UI questions, the answer is "it depends".

You need to weigh discoverability with user satisfaction, among other things. For example, allowing an invalid action gives you an opportunity to explain why something is invalid. This is particularly useful if the answer to "why is this disabled" isn't obvious. For an application where most users are beginners, that's important.

On the other hand, it can be mightily frustrating to see a control, click on it, only to be rewarded with a "sorry, you can't do that now" message. An app I inherited a couple years back was rife with that sort of stuff and it made using the UI an exercise in frustration.

Completely hiding functionality is probably rarely a good idea. Imagine knowing some feature "was there a minute ago" but now it's gone. Whether it's a menu item or a toolbar button or something else entirely, making it hidden can be an exercise in frustration for the end user.

Try doing a little usability testing, if only by asking the next person you see "hey, does it make sense to disable this or show you an informative dialog". Just one other opinion is often enough to get you to look at the problem from another direction.

Bottom line: do what best serves the user. All the scenarios you mention are valid under certain circumstances. As with all UI questions, ask yourself (or better, your users) what best serves their needs.

Solution 3:

I disable the elements instead of hiding them. That way the user knows the option would normally be available, and I provide a tooltip to explain why the element isn't currently available.

Solution 4:

It depends. Do you want the user to be aware that the action is possible, just not for them? In that case, show them the button, but disable it. An example might be if a user doesn't have delete authority, but other users do, they should know that entries CAN be deleted, so they can ask someone to do it for them if they need the action.

On the other hand, if the user is not supposed to even know about the action (for example, a user who does not have read access to audit logs probably shouldn't know that these logs exist) should not be able to see the button, so hide it completely.