4 ms·
Usability Tip: Use Verbs as Labels on Buttons
- jmtame 18y agoHa I like how it's correctly done in the Mac popup, but not in the PC.
- edw519 18y agoI have always extended this with the acronym "VAN". (I remind myself that programming is like driving a van.) Verb Adjective Noun "Enter New Customers" better than "Custs" "Pay All Bills" better than "Accts Payable" "Download Changed SKUs" better than "SKU Update" You get the idea. Not just for buttons, but for everything, even the stuff the user never sees. So simple, yet so elusive.
- HendrikR 18y agoTotally Agree. ;) The simple ratio: Tell your users what is going to happen after his or her action. This minimizes misunderstandings and frustrations.
- kirubakaran 18y agoAwesome! Thanks.
- JeremyChase 18y agoI totally disagree; the OSX box is even more confusing. The problem is that you are performing two actions at the same time. First is closing the file and second is saving he file. For the box to be clear both issues have to be clear. TextEdit: Save - Clearly this saves the document Cancel - I think this cancels the save, but does it close the file too? Not sure. Don't Save - Ok "Don't Save", but then what? Does this close the document or is it the same as Cancel? Wait, I'm not 100% sure what cancel does. The WordPad message is a little clunky because you have to read what the box in order to know you are saving. However, once you read the box Yes/No is very clear, cancel still leaves a bit to be desired. If you really want to be clear the buttons should say: Save, Abandon changes, Go Back
- axod 18y ago"Cancel - I think this cancels the save, but does it close the file too? Not sure." Obviously, it "cancels" - eg puts things back into the state before you clicked 'quit'. 'don't save' quits, but does not save. You did click on 'quit' after all. Personally I think that's pretty clear.
- Hexstream 18y agoI'm wondering if making the dialog text even more contextual would be better? "Do you want save the changes you made to the document "Test Doc" before quitting? Quit without Saving / Don't Quit / Save and Quit"
- jonknee 18y agoThe key is consistency, in OS X cancel always reverses the last action without side effects. I find the OS X way much more clear. Microsoft agrees, see Windows Vista.
- stcredzero 18y agoThere are a lot of things in a UI that are Verbs. But there are also lots of things that are Tools. Tools seem to be devices that are used for certain verbs, or a single verbs. If there are plural verbs, these should go together in a way that makes sense. (Example: a file selection dialog that lets you navigate folders and create new folders.) Are Tools valid? Are they over used? Are they used enough?
- HendrikR 18y agoThis 'Usability Tip' is well-known and nevertheless absolutely true. See this document for further reading: http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/AppleHIGuidelines/index.html http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conc...
- mshafrir 18y agoOK and Cancel are verbs.
- randomwalker 18y agoEven Gnome has been doing this for several years now. I think Microsoft has good UI people, but none of them work on Windows. Strange, and sad.
- mynameishere 18y agoNo! The Apple Dialog has the same information repeated FOUR times. #1 Do you want to save the changes you made in the document "test doc" #2 Your changes will be lost if you don't save them. #3 Don't Save #4 Save FOUR times I am told what I'm doing, "Saving". Yeah, each iteration has a little more information added to it. "Saving what document?" "Saving is important why?" "What is the alternative to saving?" Thanks for the slowly unfolding tutorial there... Okay. Listen, the MSFT dialog works like this. It's a boolean. It's very short and simple: The answer is "yes" or "no". The user gets used to this yes/no format. Save? yes/no Print? yes/no [<-- doesn't really exist] Restore settings? yes/no The consistency of this reduces one's need to actually read-and-process-and-understand what are extremely simple questions inherently.
- altrux 18y agoi really think this has a lot to do with user base, while i mostly agree with you, i dont think most users think in terms of boolean values.
- mynameishere 18y agoI think most people indeed understand the concept of a "yes/no" question.
- rkts 18y agoThe problem is that users typically read as little as is necessary to figure out what to do next--and very often, not even that much. Since the Windows dialog must be read entirely to be understood, it's more likely to be misinterpreted. E.g., a user may accidentally press "close," see the dialog, and think, "No, I didn't mean to close"... and then lose all their work.
- mynameishere 18y agoread as little as is necessary Exactly. The Windows dialog is very, very short. The apple dialog is a miniature tutorial on the purpose and consequences of this thing called "save".