Hidden vs. Disabled In UX — Smashing Magazine

Hide one-time settings and options. • Hide precision controls, but let expert users choose to keep them revealed. • Don’t force or expect mainstreamers to customize, but offer this option for experts. • Hide elegantly; that is, hide completely and reveal just in time.

At times, not showing features can hold just as much value as showing them. By suppressing features people don’t need, we help highlight the ones they do. We just need to make sure that whenever we do decide to hide less-used features, there are easy-to-understand trigger indicators, and we don’t inadvertently make the interface harder to use.

One approach that I’m not keen on is to let users customize the interface by hiding features according to their needs. To me, this smacks of laziness and indecision on the part of the designers.