Disabled buttons
- Forbidden
- A greyed-out submit button with no indication of what's missing
- Instead
- Prefer not to disable at all. Three better options, in order: enable it and validate on submit; remove the action and say why it is unavailable; or keep it at full contrast with a lock icon and explain how to unlock it.
What this rule looks like
Why this rule
A disabled button gives no feedback on press, usually fails contrast, and is skipped by keyboard focus — so the user cannot reach the element to discover why it is dead. Where disabling is genuinely right, put a message beside it or a tooltip on it explaining what is needed, and keep it keyboard-focusable so assistive technology can reach that explanation. See P-02.
- Kind
- Rule
- Section
- Things to avoid
- Group
- States and interaction
- Bucket
- judgment
- Severity
- note
- Since
- v0.1.0