UI&us is about User Interface Design, User Experience design and the cognitive psychology behind design in general. It's written by Keith Lang, co-founder of Skitch; now a part of Evernote.  His views and opinions are his own and do not represent in any way the views or opinions of any company. 

Navigation
Categories
External Articles

Entries in Modality (1)

Thursday
Jun252009

I Need to Select Something First

Have you ever frustratedly wondered why a button didn't work, or wasn't 'available' in an application when you suddenly realized…

"Ah, I need to select something first!

The 'something' may have been an icon on a layout, some numbers in a spreadsheet, or a section of an image. Your software expected you to select the object, and THEN apply a function in a noun>verb type action. In your head you were thinking verb>noun, with the action in mind first.

Are there interfaces which handle both verb>noun and noun>verb actions nicely?
To date I've seen:

  • Disabling buttons/menu options (clearly enough so the user notices)
  • Showing a dialogue box "You need to select an item first"
Is there a better way to handle this?

Have the software re-select the most recently selected object and apply the function to this object and rely on Undo if it's incorrect?

[This post was inspired by this recent video demo by TUAW of QuickKeys 4. At about 1:35 into the movie (loud intro music, quiet voice) the demo-er find himself unable to apply any functions until he selects part of the image.]


Click to read more ...