Disabling a control vs hiding a control in ASP.NET

From a User Interface design point of view when is it better to disable a control or to completely hide it. I have 开发者_如何学Goattached an example. In both case if the "Enable ASP.NET" checkbox is clicked the "Select. Net Version selector is enabled.

I would argue that it's almost always best to just disable. Hiding controls means you're leaving a portion of your functionality/configurability a mystery to the end-user. Unless there's a compelling reason to keep users in the dark, I wouldn't.

Your example of a checkbox that enables/disables or hides/unhides a dropdown box is a good one. If users aren't aware that checking the box allows them to select further options, they may never check it and find out, because they don't realize the option they're looking for is there.

Many of us, as developers, come from the "try everything" mindset when it comes to using a piece of software. Normal users don't think that way, and that's not a bad thing, either. It just means we have to keep in mind that not everybody will do what it takes to discover a piece of UI that's been hidden. Leaving it visible but disabled lets them see that there's something there for the having should they decide they want/need to use it, rather than leaving them either wondering if the software does something or never even considering that it might.

This really depends on the context of the example. In this case there is some value associated with disabling the control as it provides a visual affordance that enabling the ASP .Net checkbox will have a determinable outcome.

If the outcome of the checkbox is actually a whole series of non related suboptions or the parent control was a dropdownlist which determines which child elements become available then it would be better to hide / show only those elements that are appropriate to the current selection.

One other point, if you are describing "hiding" the controls as control.visible = false in code rather than display:none then remember that the output will actually not be rendered into the browser at all. This may be a concern if you are catering for disabled users with browsers requiring stricter accessibility requirements etc.

To me that depends on user knowledge. If the user knows what should follow I tend to give them as much information as possible so I would show it disabled. If the user is clueless as to what follows I hide as much as possible. Sometimes I do different things on user role and sometimes it depends on the average user of the application and their expected understanding of the underlying issues.

hth,

\ ^ / i l l

I prefer to disabled the control, so the user can see that he may have something to fill out. But it can be usefull to hide it if you are restricted on space.

It really depends on the situation