5 ms·

"Ok" for a change (that's described in the body of the dialog's text) is... okay, I suppose. But it's better to mirror the action verb for your confirmation b

"Ok" for a change (that's described in the body of the dialog's text) is... okay, I suppose. But it's better to mirror the action verb for your confirmation button, because users don't necessarily read the text you present them with. So, instead of this: Delete xyz.jpg? -------------------------- The file 'xyz.jpg' will be permanently deleted. -------------------------- [ OK ] [ Cancel ] You have: Delete xyz.jpg? -------------------------- The file 'xyz.jpg' will be permanently deleted. -------------------------- [ Delete ] [ Cancel ] And you get one more chance for the user to see what action they're about to perform. There's very good, detailed guidance on this in the Windows design guidelines (the design-specific aspects are a bit dated since everything there refers to Vista/7-era UI elements, but their guidance on text and dialog styles is still applicable): Text: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dn742476(v=vs.85).aspx https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dn7... Dialog Boxes: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dn742499(v=vs.85).aspx https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dn7...

StavrosK 8y ago
Yes, precisely. The worst UI I've ever seen was: "Cancel this action?" "Yes" "Cancel" Seriously?!
- lucb1e 8y ago
  If you get lucky, it has a window close button on the right top as a safe way out. If you're unlucky... better have that power cable in reach.
  - 0xfeba 8y ago
    Reminds me of this gem from Microsoft: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/16/05/24/171215/windows-10-upgrade-activates-by-clicking-red-x-close-button-in-prompt-message https://tech.slashdot.org/story/16/05/24/171215/windows-10-u... > In a move guaranteed to annoy many people, Microsoft has "jumped the shark" on encouraging users to upgrade to Windows 10. Microsoft has faced criticism for changing the pop-up box encouraging Windows users to upgrade to Windows 10. Clicking the red cross on the right hand corner of the pop-up box now activates the upgrade instead of closing the box.
    - isostatic 8y ago
      And people wonder why so many are concerned about the github buyout
  - syrrim 8y ago
    I have a feeling pulling the plug would cancel the action.
    - lozf 8y ago
      Hmmm, maybe... or perhaps you get a call that their monitor doesn't work... On reconnecting the power cable we find all files deleted anyway.
- userbinator 8y ago
  That also shows why the "repeat the verb again" can be more confusing. At least it wasn't "Cancel this action?" "Cancel" "Cancel" On the other hand, I think Yes or No are clearly an answer to "Cancel this action?"
  - sjwright 8y ago
    This is the edgiest of edge cases. Intuitively I would assume that such a dialogue box may be a UX smell and there could be better ways to perform a two stage confirmation. Or you can just bend the UX rules for this one instance. Or you can consider whether cancel is the best verb anyway; what about “end” or “stop” or “abort”?
- mariodiana 8y ago
  The problem is in the verbiage of the question. A person writing a dialog should consider "Cancel" something like a reserved word in a programming language.
- hutattedonmyarm 8y ago
  I've seen "Cancel this action?" "OK" "Cancel" before. Not fun either
- moring 8y ago
  I'm currently in the process of writing together some basic UI guidelines at work, and one of the special cases was exactly this: If the dialog asks for confirmation to cancel a process, it must ask, "cancel this process", and the buttons must be labeled "yes" and "no", never "cancel".
userbinator 8y ago
Actually "mirror the action verb" surprises/confuses me even more than "OK" "Cancel", since the latter are standard and almost expected, whereas anything other than a positive/negative response feels unexpected. It's like the real-life equivalent of asking someone a yes/no question --- you're expecting a yes/no answer. In fact, I'd say this is even clearer, putting the question at the end and immediately following it with the two choices: The file 'xyz.jpg' will be permanently deleted. -------------------------- Delete xyz.jpg? -------------------------- [ Yes ] [ No ] ...and this also coincidentally gives a reason for the order of OK/Cancel --- affirmation on the left, denial on the right.
- cdubzzz 8y ago
  > Actually "mirror the action verb" surprises/confuses me To a certain extent, I would think this is the point of using this approach (at least for a "delete" action). I'd prefer the user to stop and think, "wait, what is this?" instead of just blindly clicking through.
- mcbits 8y ago
  A problem with Yes/No (and OK/Cancel, etc.) is that one program will ask Unsaved changes will be lost. Save your changes first? and another program will ask Unsaved changes will be lost. Are you sure? Or within a single program, "Yes" will be the safe option everywhere except one place where it's the dangerous option because nobody thought about that. If the user is exposed to one convention 90% of the time, the other one will always cause some confusion and feel sloppy.
- jacobolus 8y ago
  Please force the reader to directly click an action verb. It is much easier to skip over text (even text that comes immediately before) misinterpret the dialog, and click the wrong button when using generic button labels "yes" and "no". And more generally, before disregarding industry best practices and findings from research literature and implementing something based on ad-hoc personal hunches, make sure you run some experiments on real people.
  - 8y ago
jdietrich 8y ago
Better: Delete xyz.jpg? -------------------------- The file 'xyz.jpg' will be permanently deleted. -------------------------- [ Delete xyz.jpg ] [ Keep xyz.jpg ] Action buttons sometimes need to be single verbs for the sake of brevity. A verb-noun pair is much more legible than a standalone verb. Self-explanatory buttons are usually preferable to buttons that depend on explanatory text.

StavrosK 8y ago

Yes, precisely. The worst UI I've ever seen was: "Cancel this action?" "Yes" "Cancel" Seriously?!

lucb1e 8y ago
If you get lucky, it has a window close button on the right top as a safe way out. If you're unlucky... better have that power cable in reach.
- 0xfeba 8y ago
  Reminds me of this gem from Microsoft: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/16/05/24/171215/windows-10-upgrade-activates-by-clicking-red-x-close-button-in-prompt-message https://tech.slashdot.org/story/16/05/24/171215/windows-10-u... > In a move guaranteed to annoy many people, Microsoft has "jumped the shark" on encouraging users to upgrade to Windows 10. Microsoft has faced criticism for changing the pop-up box encouraging Windows users to upgrade to Windows 10. Clicking the red cross on the right hand corner of the pop-up box now activates the upgrade instead of closing the box.
  - isostatic 8y ago
    And people wonder why so many are concerned about the github buyout
- syrrim 8y ago
  I have a feeling pulling the plug would cancel the action.
  - lozf 8y ago
    Hmmm, maybe... or perhaps you get a call that their monitor doesn't work... On reconnecting the power cable we find all files deleted anyway.
userbinator 8y ago
That also shows why the "repeat the verb again" can be more confusing. At least it wasn't "Cancel this action?" "Cancel" "Cancel" On the other hand, I think Yes or No are clearly an answer to "Cancel this action?"
- sjwright 8y ago
  This is the edgiest of edge cases. Intuitively I would assume that such a dialogue box may be a UX smell and there could be better ways to perform a two stage confirmation. Or you can just bend the UX rules for this one instance. Or you can consider whether cancel is the best verb anyway; what about “end” or “stop” or “abort”?
mariodiana 8y ago
The problem is in the verbiage of the question. A person writing a dialog should consider "Cancel" something like a reserved word in a programming language.
hutattedonmyarm 8y ago
I've seen "Cancel this action?" "OK" "Cancel" before. Not fun either
moring 8y ago
I'm currently in the process of writing together some basic UI guidelines at work, and one of the special cases was exactly this: If the dialog asks for confirmation to cancel a process, it must ask, "cancel this process", and the buttons must be labeled "yes" and "no", never "cancel".

userbinator 8y ago

Actually "mirror the action verb" surprises/confuses me even more than "OK" "Cancel", since the latter are standard and almost expected, whereas anything other than a positive/negative response feels unexpected. It's like the real-life equivalent of asking someone a yes/no question --- you're expecting a yes/no answer. In fact, I'd say this is even clearer, putting the question at the end and immediately following it with the two choices: The file 'xyz.jpg' will be permanently deleted. -------------------------- Delete xyz.jpg? -------------------------- [ Yes ] [ No ] ...and this also coincidentally gives a reason for the order of OK/Cancel --- affirmation on the left, denial on the right.

cdubzzz 8y ago
> Actually "mirror the action verb" surprises/confuses me To a certain extent, I would think this is the point of using this approach (at least for a "delete" action). I'd prefer the user to stop and think, "wait, what is this?" instead of just blindly clicking through.
mcbits 8y ago
A problem with Yes/No (and OK/Cancel, etc.) is that one program will ask Unsaved changes will be lost. Save your changes first? and another program will ask Unsaved changes will be lost. Are you sure? Or within a single program, "Yes" will be the safe option everywhere except one place where it's the dangerous option because nobody thought about that. If the user is exposed to one convention 90% of the time, the other one will always cause some confusion and feel sloppy.
jacobolus 8y ago
Please force the reader to directly click an action verb. It is much easier to skip over text (even text that comes immediately before) misinterpret the dialog, and click the wrong button when using generic button labels "yes" and "no". And more generally, before disregarding industry best practices and findings from research literature and implementing something based on ad-hoc personal hunches, make sure you run some experiments on real people.
- 8y ago

jdietrich 8y ago

Better: Delete xyz.jpg? -------------------------- The file 'xyz.jpg' will be permanently deleted. -------------------------- [ Delete xyz.jpg ] [ Keep xyz.jpg ] Action buttons sometimes need to be single verbs for the sake of brevity. A verb-noun pair is much more legible than a standalone verb. Self-explanatory buttons are usually preferable to buttons that depend on explanatory text.