Showing Access Rights to end users.. should I? shouldn't I?

Question

when using Requirement Management application, some ppl say, dont show your users, those areas which are not accessible for them or no permission, only show the accessible section... It doesnt sound good to me, what do you guys think?

Answer 1

It depends.

• How much stuff do want to show? One problem many systems do have is information overload. So less options would be better.
• How experienced are the users? Sometimes it might be better to have a consistent interface for many users to help novices recognize things they see at other screens.

Answer 2

Off the top of my head I can think of three reasons why you would want to avoid showing your users areas that they do not have access to.

1. You're constantly reminding them that there are features that they cannot use. This can lead to feelings of not being trusted or of not being important enough.

2. You waste users time. In some implementations I have seen of this the user is allowed to complete a task, for example filling out a form, and only when they submit it are they informed that they have insufficient privileges. This can lead to frustrated users.

3. You distract the user. Best practice is to put the bare minimum amount of information and choice in front of the user (there are exceptions to this rule). Enable your users to get their specific job done, rather than distracting them with the possibility of the option of getting all the jobs done.

If you are worried about inconsistencies in your user interface then you should probably take another look at the way you have laid your UI out and how you have segmented the tasks.

Generally speaking you should break your applications into sections of tasks (use-cases) with the permissions being tied to the particular task in the application.

For example if User A can only pull reports from a system then they should only be offered the option of going to the "pull reports" section of the application. If User B can pull reports and add orders then his screen should offer him the option of either "adding a new order", or going through to the exact same "pull reports" screen as User A. These screens shouldn't differ between the users in most cases. Their menu/navigation options would be contextual based off their permissions, and User A would never even have the option of clicking the "add new order" option.

There are obviously instances such as when certain users have a delete privilege then they are shown a delete button when other users only have the read permission. In this case your UI would differ from user to user but in an appropriate and contextual manner.

Somebody once said that an interface is done not when there is nothing left to add, but rather when there is nothing left to take away.