Information and Message Areas (Area)

Provide an information or message area for each primary window and each nonmodal secondary window.

Provide a message area for a window that contains rarely used choices.

Provide a message area if the task to be performed in the viewing area is complex, requiring many steps to be performed precisely.

Do not provide an information or message area for a message window.

Do not scroll the information or message area when the window's viewing areas are scrolled.

Do not provide scroll bars for the information area and do not allow a user to scroll information in the information area.

Provide scroll bars for the message area if there is not enough space to display the complete message.

Do not allow a user to interact with the information or message areas, except to transfer data from the area.

If you display any text in an information area, make it a textual label.

If you display any text in a message area, put it in a text-display field.

Remove information from the information area as soon as it is no longer relevant to the current state of the window or the current position of the cursor.

If you include an information or message area, design it to run from border to border across the width of the window.

Make the information area no taller than necessary to accommodate brief, but meaningful, information. For example, if the information area displays text, accommodate at most two lines of text.

If the message area displays text, make it two to five lines high.

Place the information and message areas at the bottom of the client area of a window. If you provide both, place the message area above the information area.

Separate the areas from the rest of the window. For example, use a solid line or a horizontal scroll bar to separate the information area from the rest of the window.

If the user reduces the width of a window with an information or message area and the information can wrap in the area, wrap the information; otherwise, clip the area.

Do not use the information area to display information that a user must see; display that type of information in a message area.

Use the message area for information that the user must see but does not need to acknowledge. If the user must acknowledge the message, use a message dialog; if the user does not need to acknowledge the information and it is brief, use an information area.

Place information about the normal completion of a process in the information area. For example, indicate in the information area that a file was successfully saved.

For views that can support more than one selection model, if it is unclear from the context which ones are supported, place in the information area information about the selection models supported. For example, if only single selection is supported, display a label similar to the following:

Select only one

When the active cursor is on a choice, briefly describe in the information area what will happen when a user activates or toggles that choice.

When the active cursor is on an element other than a choice, briefly suggest in the information area how to perform available actions on the element.

If a default action is available but no push button with default emphasis is visible, briefly indicate the default action in the information area.

When the user presses the SELECT button on a push button in an application, use the information area to describe the effect of activating the button. Remove the information when the user releases SELECT.

As the user follows the instructions in the message area, if your application can determine that the message has been followed, scroll the message area so that the next instruction is visible.