De-clutter Your Interface with Hover Controls
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De-clutter Your Interface with Hover Controls
1–10 of 17 posts
Re: De-clutter Your Interface with Hover Controls
#2My question: How well will this work on a device like an iPhone where hovering isn't useful.
Although I think the the problem with repetitive buttons does need a solution, I also think it's too hard to assume that users will figure out that hovering over something may allow them to see additional choices.
Re: De-clutter Your Interface with Hover Controls
#3My question: How well will this work on a device like an iPhone where hovering isn't useful. Although I think the the problem with repetitive buttons does need a solution, I also think it's too hard to assume that users will figure out that hovering over something may allow them to see additional choices.
I don't think the advice here is suitable for touchscreen devices. In those cases you might consider having a single button that, once clicked, will reveal additional functionality.
On another note, it looks as though these guys guys have come up with a way to detect hovering for touchscreens:
http://developer.practicalecommerce.com/articles/1900-Maybe-...
Apparently it can detect the user's finger while actually hover above the surface of the screen.
Re: De-clutter Your Interface with Hover Controls
#4My question: How well will this work on a device like an iPhone where hovering isn't useful. Although I think the the problem with repetitive buttons does need a solution, I also think it's too hard to assume that users will figure out that hovering over something may allow them to see additional choices.
This question crossed my mind too. Anyone have a solution?
On the other hand, I just learned the technique of using psuedo-classes early in the css selector chain. Sweet!
Re: De-clutter Your Interface with Hover Controls
#5The disadvantage of this is that there is no visual cue to the user that additional controls will appear.
Not every user will spend time hovering over your entire UI, searching for controls that you've hidden away.
This is a one-dimensional design decision. "UI looks cluttered, lets hide some stuff. Wow that looks better!". But from the viewpoint of a new user, you've just created a barrier.
Re: De-clutter Your Interface with Hover Controls
#6The disadvantage of this is that there is no visual cue to the user that additional controls will appear. Not every user will spend time hovering over your entire UI, searching for controls that you've hidden away. This is a one-dimensional design decision. "UI looks cluttered, lets hide some stuff. Wow that looks better!". But from the viewpoint of a new user, you've just created a barrier.
Have you conducted any studies that show that? We have done this and so far no one has ever complained about "missing links/buttons". Most users never even noticed when we switched to hover controls
Re: De-clutter Your Interface with Hover Controls
#7As a power user I'm atypical, I know, but I hate hover controls because they slow me down. I've also used interfaces that border on unusable because they are both slow and undiscoverable.
Re: De-clutter Your Interface with Hover Controls
#8The disadvantage of this is that there is no visual cue to the user that additional controls will appear. Not every user will spend time hovering over your entire UI, searching for controls that you've hidden away. This is a one-dimensional design decision. "UI looks cluttered, lets hide some stuff. Wow that looks better!". But from the viewpoint of a new user, you've just created a barrier.
Have you conducted any studies that show that? We have done this and so far no one has ever complained about "missing links/buttons". Most users never even noticed when we switched to hover controls
Have you done any studies to ensure that new visitors know that there are contols to discover? Perhaps they aren't complaining because they don't know they're missing stuff.
Or perhaps they just leave.
Re: De-clutter Your Interface with Hover Controls
#9The disadvantage of this is that there is no visual cue to the user that additional controls will appear. Not every user will spend time hovering over your entire UI, searching for controls that you've hidden away. This is a one-dimensional design decision. "UI looks cluttered, lets hide some stuff. Wow that looks better!". But from the viewpoint of a new user, you've just created a barrier.
Have you conducted any studies that show that? We have done this and so far no one has ever complained about "missing links/buttons". Most users never even noticed when we switched to hover controls
Could you provide more information about the experiment that you conducted? In real life, users have the option of quitting, and the luxury to do it in private; two things that are very hard to emulate in "experimental" conditions but which greatly affect the outcome. I'm not in any position to judge your experimental techniques, but if you're relying on users actively complaining about things, or worse, telling you what they think they want, you're probably doing it wrong.
It's my opinion that hiding menu items not a great idea for the reasons OP said. In my opinion, coming from someone who's had to use an interface which does this, is that it's borderline obnoxious expecting me to remember where, and that it's necessary, to hover over magical areas to show important controls.
I think having the items be very translucent until hovered provides the best of both worlds. I can see where they are, but are easily ignorable.
Re: De-clutter Your Interface with Hover Controls
#10This is a terrible solution:
- It won't work on any mobile device (touchscreen or not)
- The user has to guess where the controls are, and even if it's obvious to you, it's not for 20% of them at least.
The real solution is to link the title of the entry to the edit form, and to add a delete icon to the right. Yes, it will repeat itself on each line, but it's still more accessible to everyone.
To help the user know on which line he's clicking the delete button, you can altern the background of the lines (grey/white/grey/...) or just make the background change while the mouse is hovering. And as a bonus, have a meaningful confirmation of deletion (repeating the name of the entry) upon click.
Win/Win, everyone is happy.