Usability Articles - Human Computer Interaction and Interface Design

Tuesday, 26 February 2008

Progressive Disclosure

Progressive disclosure is a technique that postpones advanced or rarely used features to a secondary screen, reducing the complexity of the interface so that applications (web and software) are easier to learn and produce less errors.

A typical example is the print screen dialog. You are presented with the basic options such as which printer to use, how many and which pages to print. You then have the option to change printer specific setting etc. from another screen linked by a button, usually. This helps the user make faster decisions; in most cases the user won't have to adjust 'advanced' settings, so moving them to another screen makes daily operations smoother.

Progressive disclosure uses simplicity to increase scanability and place more emphasis on items you initially see - the more importan items. This is important to note, as it introduces a hierachy. The more important the items, the easier they should be to access.

This can also be applied to the web. Developing an information architecture that includes a hierachy of importance is a good start. For example, you might organise your main menu (like many others) with drop down items. First level items would be initially visible (ie 'products'), second level items would appear underneath/next to their parent (ie. my product1, my product2...)

Keeping your information structured like this also helps with the design of other aspects of your application, including visual, navigational and logical.