Re: [Usability] Re: Button ordering

[Seth Nickell <snickell stanford edu>]

You've convinced me :-) Maciej, would you write up a short blurb using
this for the feedback section as you suggested?

-seth

On Sat, 2001-11-03 at 20:29, Maciej Stachowiak wrote:
> On 03Nov2001 07:16PM (-0800), Seth Nickell wrote:
> > > >  ----------------------------------------------------------------
> > > >  |                                                              |
> > > >  |    WARNING: Are you sure you want to format your hard        |
> > > >  |             drive? This will erase all data on the drive     |
> > > >  |             including documents and applications.            |
> > > >  |                                                              |
> > > >  | [ Help ]              [ Cancel Format ] [ Erase Hard Drive ] | 
> > > >  `--------------------------------------------------------------'
> > > 
> > > If it were up to me, I would do it more like this:
> > > 
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------------
> > > |                                                                |
> > > | [alert]   Are you sure you want to erase volume `My Disk'?     |
> > > | [icon ]   This will permanently delete all files on `My Disk'. |
> > > |                                                                |
> > > | [ Help ]                                  [ Cancel ] [ Erase ] | 
> > > `----------------------------------------------------------------'
> > > 
> > > Rationale:
> > > 
> > > * All-caps text like WARNING is hard on the eyes, looks ugly, and
> > > needlessly alarms users. A suitable alert icon should be sufficient.
> > 
> > It is intentionally hard on the eyes 
> 
> OK, so you're assuming that making something harder to read will make
> the reader more likely to read it before quickly dimsissing a dialog?
> At the extreme end of the spectrum, we could make all the text
> all-caps, bright red, and blinking.
> 
> > and very alarming. 
> 
> Making UI text alarming is more likely to make users fear their
> computer than to make them think more carefully (or whatever the
> intended effect is). Indeed tend to think less clearly when
> alarmed. Admittedly a minor case here, but it illustrates a broader
> point: don't scare the user, just explain the situation in plain
> language.
> 
> > The user is about to initiate just about the most destructive
> > operation their computer knows how to do. Note that this dialogue
> > was specifically for the primary hard disk. Presumably something
> > that formats removable media would be much less severe. The alert
> > icon is too generic I think, since many less serious warnings will
> > use the alert icon.
> 
> I was using the term in the generic sense here, I assume there will be
> a couple of different ones for different severity.
> 
> > > * Clarity is important, but so is brevity. I would suggest thinking
> > > "what words can I take out?" when writing UI text, as the GDP does for
> > > documentation. This goes double for command buttons.
> > 
> > Actually, I would prefer the button to read "Erase My Disk". I think
> > buttons should be rather specific about what they are about to perform,
> > it makes the choice easier.
> 
> Let me go into a bit more detail. In context, "Erase" is plenty
> specific. Further "Erase" is instantly visually recongizable, while
> "Erase My Disk" takes a bit more time to read and process.
> 
> > 
> >   ---------------------------------------------------------------
> >  |                                                               |
> >  | [alert]   WARNING: Are you sure you want to erase volume      |
> >  | [icon ]   `My Disk'? This will permanently delete all files   |
> >  |            on `My Disk'.                                      |
> >  |                                                               |
> >  | [ Help ]                         [ Cancel ] [ Erase My Disk ] | 
> >   ---------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Customizing the button to the volume name is definitely overdoing
> it. We definitely want "Save", not "Save MyDocument.txt" for
> example. Command button labels mostly need to be brief and constant.
> 
> > Anyway, this can descend into endless bickering and I think Maciej's
> > version emphasizes the important points just as well. 
> 
> I'm not trying to bicker, just demonstrate some of the principles one
> might apply to this completely hypothetical example, so people know we
> don't just pull this stuff from our collective ass. :-)
> 
> > I think it would definitely be reasonable to include these examples
> > in the interface guidelines.
> 
> If you think this particular confirmation dialog is so atypical as to
> require the all-caps text "WARNING:" at the beginning, we probably
> don't want to include it, since it we don't want to recommend that as
> standard practice, even for descructive actions like quitting without
> saving, overwriting a file, or emptying the trash.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Maciej
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