Remember those childhood games where you are given two nearly identical images and your objective was to find some number of subtle differences? Well, I shouldn't have to play that game when I'm using your damn website.
I show here two examples of a common practice that is plaguing the modern web. First, a clipping from a project page on github.com.
And now the second image:
See the difference? My question is this: why? That edit button is the only component of the entire page that has a hide-by-default-unless-your-mouse-is-in-a-certain-vertical-and-horizontal-range behavior. And that behavior is just stupid. Is the edit button really that ugly? Is it really detracting from the purpose of the page? Why bother hiding it?
My second example is from Google's contact editing page. I want to delete contact bob. Here is the first image:
Where is the delete button?
Oh there it is!! Because it was just so obvious that you should click on the contacts name as if you were going to edit it to make some ellipsis (what the hell are those for anyway?) and a trash can appear.
Seriously. Does Google need help locating some space on that page to put the button? Here, let me try:
I'm not a UX designer, but I sincerely believe this practice of hiding buttons and forms unless the user hovers their cursor in exactly the right areas is a case of "just because we can, doesn't mean we should". Except people are doing it anyway, and it's very annoying. So please, I'm tired of playing peek-a-boo with your website.
Sincerly,
A user of the internet
Source : http://bitonic.org/blog/?p=176
