Projects/Usability/HIG/StatusBar
Purpose
A status bar is an area at the bottom of a primary window that displays information about the current window's state (such as what is being viewed and how), background tasks (such as printing, scanning, and formatting), or other contextual information (e.g. selection, keyboard state, etc.).
Examples
Guidelines
Is this the right control
- Provide a status bar in the main window of every standard application.
- Do not display a status bar in secondary or internal windows.
Behavior
- Do not use status bars for crucial information. Users should never have to know what is in the status bar. Otherwise consider to use tool-tips or a message panel.
- Do not use the status bar to display advisory messages in place of standard tool-tips.
- Do not make a status bar area interactive in standard applications. because those features are difficult to understand for non-experts.
- Do not hide the status bars by default. If configurable, users should easily be able to make it viewable again.
Appearance
- When different information are shown the content of a status bar should be structured in panels.
- Keep the status bar plain; do not add icons.