I don't know anything about design. The solution that I propose seems obvious though; am I missing something?
> Too many elements are a distraction.
> What is the affordance of invisibility?
There is a middle though: instead of either making it invisible OR cluttered, couldn't you just design it with a small clue, such as an arrow, which would open a drop-down menu when rolled over (on a computer) or tapped on (on a touch device)?
A drop-down menu with a small icon to prompt the user would hit the middle between simplicity and obnoxious prompting.
> Too many elements are a distraction.
> What is the affordance of invisibility?
There is a middle though: instead of either making it invisible OR cluttered, couldn't you just design it with a small clue, such as an arrow, which would open a drop-down menu when rolled over (on a computer) or tapped on (on a touch device)?
A drop-down menu with a small icon to prompt the user would hit the middle between simplicity and obnoxious prompting.