I remember one place I worked where the really important dialogs required the user to type "confirm" before proceeding. Creative solution.

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I remember one place I worked where the really important dialogs required the user to type "confirm" before proceeding. Creative solution.

Comments

  1. Juan C. CillerueloJanuary 27, 2016 at 11:32 PM

    It seems an error the button Cancel!!! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. David MillingtonJanuary 28, 2016 at 3:33 AM

    Once upon a time, I read that users always just click Ok without reading the error messages. "That's silly," I told myself. "I'm a developer. I'd never do that." Guess what I caught myself completely unconsciously doing...

    That realisation affected my sense of UI design - or user experience design - quite a lot. I try to avoid message dialogs where possible - i.e. only have dialogs for settings, input, that kind of thing. There are often much better ways to show errors or information, often integrated into the item that has the error or has information. That requires more creative work than just throwing up a dialog, and a good understanding of what is shown onscreen and how users use the app and interact with it.

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  3. Rob UttleyJanuary 28, 2016 at 4:31 AM

    Does anyone remember the old days of WinZip (I think - I guess it might have PKZip for Windows though) where there was a 3-button dialog that would regularly appear (it was shareware/license kind of dialog and the buttons were something like 'Ok', 'Cancel', and 'Enter Code')?

    If memory serves the order of the 3 buttons would change around from time to time to stop you from just clicking the first button (etc) on auto-pilot.

    Years ago a colleague worked on something for a financial system where the dialogs would appear so that 'Cancel' appeared immediately, and 'OK' would appear after a few seconds (with no keyboard shortcut and not 'tabbable'). Turned out it didn't really cause the users to stop and read any more than just having it all available from the start would have done.

    I think David Millington 's point is a good one - if the user isn't going to read the dialog (or the dialog appears so frequently that it stops having any impact) then we should be finding other ways to get the information across.

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  4. David MillingtonJanuary 28, 2016 at 5:17 AM

    Rob Uttley I remember Winzip's moving buttons, and I also worked on an app that did the same thing in its trial mode. I was not a fan and tried to change it for years.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Graeme GeldenhuysJanuary 28, 2016 at 5:57 AM

    Every developer should read *About Face:
    The Essentials of Interaction Design*. It is a real eye opener, with some very clever things one can apply to UI design, and it also highlights the common mistakes made.

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/About-Face-Essentials-Interaction-Design/dp/0470084111

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  6. David MillingtonJanuary 28, 2016 at 8:11 AM

    Graeme Geldenhuys Added to my wishlist. Is there a big difference between editions?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Juan C. CillerueloJanuary 28, 2016 at 8:15 AM

    David Millington Me Too!

    But seems that there is a more updated edition.

    http://www.amazon.com/About-Face-Essentials-Interaction-Design/dp/1118766571/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1453997608&sr=8-2&keywords=about+face

    Graeme Geldenhuys

    ReplyDelete
  8. Cesar RomeroJanuary 28, 2016 at 8:23 AM

    madExcept installer you have to type "yes" to agree and continue the install process.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Graeme GeldenhuysJanuary 28, 2016 at 10:27 AM

    David Millington Juan C. Cilleruelo I had the 3rd edition in PDF form and ordered a few month ago the 4th edition in printed form. The 4th edition (I believe still the latest one) now contains mobile device interfaces and web design too - which the previous editions didn't have.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Alexandre MachadoJanuary 28, 2016 at 12:35 PM

    I liked the Launch photon torpedos option, although I think it should be torpedoes.... :-)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Stuart ClennettJanuary 29, 2016 at 5:28 AM

    Graeme Geldenhuys - thanks, added to my wishlist also.

    I try and avoid "error" dialogs at all costs, but I do have a delete confirmation dialog. It has a checkbox to confirm (which relocates each time a la WinZip) and a "Reason" field which requires > 10 characters. Only then does the Delete button become available.

    I have used a kind of captcha in the passed by getting the user to retype a randomly generated 4 digit pin number.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Carlos TréJanuary 29, 2016 at 5:31 AM

    Back in the day when XTreeGold was the star file manager, one had to actually type "prune" in order to prune & graft folders. I have been using this technique since then when asking for confirmation of undoable and potentially dangerous operations.

    ReplyDelete

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