Re: [Usability] HIG Clarification for "Close Without Saving" button

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

[removed the CC's]

On Tue, 1 Feb 2005 danilo gnome org wrote:

> Date: Tue, 01 Feb 2005 15:39:12 +0100
> From: danilo gnome org
> To: Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>
> Cc: usability gnome org, gnome-doc-list gnome org,
>      Calum Benson <Calum Benson Sun COM>
> Subject: Re: [Usability] HIG Clarification for "Close Without Saving"
>     button
>
> Today at 14:14, Alan Horkan wrote:
>
> > Is this much of an issue in other langauges or is just us Anglo's being
> > difficult?
>
> I'll answer on this one.  It would make sense to have "Discard",
> "Save", "Cancel" if the question was "There are some unsaved changes
> in this document.  What do you want to do with these changes?"
>
> I.e. it must be clear that "Discard" or "Save" is about _changes_,
> whereas "Cancel" is about the action of closing.

That is excellent because lets face it the important issue is not
closing but making sure the user does not unintentially lose
any information.

I think it is much clearer and less abiguous if we avoid repation of the
same word with a negative in front of it.  (Don't Save)

I think that Discard is much stronger language than "Close without Saving"
and users might be more likely to consider it something they probably dont
want to do.

I reiterate that I think a long phrase on a button label is not
aesthetically pleasing.

> It's very hard to achieve that all this is easily understood for the
> user, IMHO.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan
http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/

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