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I created an employee review application that has top-level stateful tabs just like the ones on this site. There is a tab called "My Employees" and a tab called "Employee Management" (used by HR only). The issue that I have is that when you are on the "My Employees" tab or the "Employee Management" tab, the associated information that is displayed both give the user access to the "View Employee" page. So right now, since you can access the "View Employee" page from both of these tabs, I am deactivating all tabs when the user is viewing that page. I'm doing this because I don't know which tab to have active. Does anyone have any suggestions? Is there a better UI navigation technique that I should be using if I have these types of scenarios, or does this indicate a flaw in the UI design in general? Is it ok for "View Employee" to be accessable from 2 tabs? Should I just use stateless tabs (buttons) or is that poor design as well? Thanks and I appreciate any help you can provide.

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1 Answer 1

I would leave the one active that you came to the View Employee page from. So if you'd got there from Employee Management, then that tab would be active.

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What if from the "View Employee" page, the user, from both tabs, can click on the "Create Review" link and navigate to the "Create Review" page? This is a level deeper. Is keeping the currently active tab still suggested with this new example? –  SideFX May 12 '11 at 14:11
Yes, it's all part of helping the user know where they are and how they get there. –  paulmorriss May 12 '11 at 14:32

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