Instead of just having action buttons be visible or not. It would nice to be able to display the button in a semi-visible state. Where the button remain visible/faded, and not-clickable, but with a custom tool-tip.
This would be helpful to keep the pages consistent, but still have a button disabled if the conditions are not met. Then having a tooltip display WHY the button is not active, would help guide users to the next step they need to take.
Example #1: Button is available only for users with a specific role, such as a manager. The button is faded when viewed by a standard user, and when hovering over it, the user would see a custom tooltip “You do not have permission to […], this is only available for Managers”
Example #2: Button is available only when specific required fields are populated, such as a Start Date. The button is faded, and the tooltip would read “Unable to proceed, missing Start Date”
The way this could work
When editing the visibility settings of an action button, have an additional toggle switch:
“What would you like to happen when visibility conditions are not met?”
Option 1: Hide this button (Default)
Option 2: Disable button but keep visible
When Option 2: is selected, have a place to type a “Tooltip when button is disabled”