Progressive disclosure
Progressive disclosure is an interaction design technique that sequences information and actions across several screens. The goal is to reduce feelings of overwhelm for the user.
By disclosing information progressively, you reveal only the essentials, then expand with details as the user requests them. You can hide less frequently used options until needed.
It was introduced in 1983 by IBM interface specialists John M. Carroll and Mary Rosson who discovered that hiding advanced functionality early on led to the increased success of its use.
In modern software, we can use “drilldown patterns” to achieve progressive disclosure. The anatomy of these patterns consists of:
Trigger. This is the behavior that engages the pattern such as a button click or a mouse hover.
Container. This is the block containing the secondary information or functionality, such as a modal or popup.
Contextual reference. This is a visual reference to the "parent" view or data, such as a transparent overlay or a breadcrumb. Its purpose is to reference the primary information. This allows the user to retain context about where they came from without having to hold it in their active memory (a limited resource!).
In the context of Cluster, progressive disclosure can be particularly useful for managing the complexity of content organization and collaboration features. For example, instead of displaying all possible actions for a content cluster at once, we can progressively reveal options as the user interacts with the interface.
We’ll cover the following patterns for managing complexity: