11–20 of 286 posts
HN folks will appreciate the entire Factorio blog. They are super open about the design of their game and it's full of micro-postmortems. https://www.factorio.com/blog/ Also, if you're reading this, you are in a demographic that is likely to absolutely love Factorio. Go buy it, it's 20 eur/usd, you won't regret it. Some call it "Programming: The Game".
Technically, they're both wrong. Button labels should be verbs. The Cancel - Open example from OS X is the right way to do a dialog box.
If it is matter of vote, I'd vote for Ok --> Cancel most of the time. My justification for this is to avoid accidentally going for Ok when what you want is Cancel...but this happens to be biased against left-handed people!
OK then cancel makes sense because 'OK" is the first, and therefore default option Cancel then OK makes sense as 'OK' is then in the bottom right corner, same place as the 'next' in a wizard GUI. But call it 'Continue' or something, whatever you're saying OK to.
Of course, once they get used to that, it still becomes automatic
> Make it so much different and Factorio specific, that the way it is done in your specific system will not interfere with your muscle memory I think this is a really thoughtful way to deal with the problem of x-platform UI that isn't using system chrome/dialogues. Don't get in the user's way, and let them develop muscle memory specific for the game.
The other advice on the linked NN post is sensible too: "If you're designing a desktop application for one of these two personal computer platforms, your choice is easy: Do what the platform owner tells you to do."
Not conforming to your environment's native design language is trouble. A miniscule part of the audience are playing the game on both kinds of platforms; the vat majority toggle between Factorio and their home OS.
If it is matter of vote, I'd vote for Ok --> Cancel most of the time. My justification for this is to avoid accidentally going for Ok when what you want is Cancel...but this happens to be biased against left-handed people!
and never color an “ok” or “go” or any action other than cancel red. not even if your app’s color scheme is red.
and don’t use both red and green.
then just be consistent.
Technically, they're both wrong. Button labels should be verbs. The Cancel - Open example from OS X is the right way to do a dialog box.
Not really, Ok can be a verb. You can “Ok” a change.
Ultimately, the answer about this UX style is very much the same as a question about writing style—there's no objectively right answer, but you have to be consistent.
For example, you can pick up any number of style books from Strunk & White to the Chicago Manual of Style and get different "right" answers about writing style, but any editor will tell you the ultimate solution is to be internally consistent.
The arguments for each approach have merit. "OK on the left" designers will argue that because we read from left to right, the positive response should be first. "OK on the right" designers will say that the positive response carries the user forward, and because we read from left to right, forward progress should be on the right.
My personal feeling is that there's another argument for OK on the right, which is that the majority of users are right-handed, so the default choice will be closer to their dominant hand if it's placed on the right.
Then again, I may be looking for evidence to support my preference, which probably arose from the fact that I began designing on the Mac, so I was conditioned to Apple's "OK on the right" standard at an early age, and I've simply conflated "familiar" with "correct."
So the answer from this veteran UX designer would be: Use whichever placement your users are going to be the most familiar with, but whichever you choose, be 100% consistent with the choice you make.
HN folks will appreciate the entire Factorio blog. They are super open about the design of their game and it's full of micro-postmortems. https://www.factorio.com/blog/ Also, if you're reading this, you are in a demographic that is likely to absolutely love Factorio. Go buy it, it's 20 eur/usd, you won't regret it. Some call it "Programming: The Game".