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, background tasks, or other contextual information.
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.
- Consider to make status bar areas interactive, e.g. with a slider to zoom content. The interaction with controls placed within the status bar is a convenience feature and must not be the only way to execute an action.
- 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.