I'd downvote this for the title if I could.
Better:
> Ok-Cancel versus Cancel-Ok: [added value of article]
E.g.: "A/B tested", or "a historical review", etc.
Ok-Cancel versus Cancel-Ok
111–120 of 286 posts
Re: Ok-Cancel versus Cancel-Ok
#112All of these are wrong, because they're answering the wrong question. Stop second-guessing the user!
Get rid of all these buttons, but provide a mechanism to UNDO the change. Linear undo plus the option to reinstate "factory default" settings is probably optimal for most applications.
Would you tolerate a text editor that asked you to confirm each letter you typed?
Re: Ok-Cancel versus Cancel-Ok
#113This has been a debate for as long as I've been a UX designer (mid '90s), and probably much longer. 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…
> "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.
I look at it using a more logically safe approach where the first option should be cancel/back/safe_option to force people to think before clicking through.
Re: Ok-Cancel versus Cancel-Ok
#114All of these are wrong, because they're answering the wrong question. Stop second-guessing the user! Get rid of all these buttons, but provide a mechanism to UNDO the change. Linear undo plus the option to reinstate "factory default" settings is probably optimal for most applications. Would you tolerate a text editor that asked you to confirm each letter you typed?
Some actions aren’t undoable.
Re: Ok-Cancel versus Cancel-Ok
#115This has been a debate for as long as I've been a UX designer (mid '90s), and probably much longer. 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…
Back when I used to build model aircraft dioramas, a veteran told me "When you arrange vehicles in a diorama setting, always have them facing towards the left side of the board for maximum impact.".
His reasoning was that most people's eyes move left to right when examining something - which mimics their eye movement when reading text (at least in Western societies. In R-L countries I guess the opposite would be true).
He said that by position the nose/cockpit of the aircraft on the left side, people's eyes would always go to where the 'little humans' would sit first, then move away towards the right. Similarly if you had scale model humans in a diorama setting - place them on the left hand side.
Placing the vehicles going against their eye movement would also make their attention 'catch' and stop at details of the object 'moving' in the opposite way (something about how people who drive cars are just more instinctually aware of something that is moving against their direction of travel). Whereas if they had to scan in the same direction the vehicle was moving, their attention would just slip past interesting points.
I've used those lessons in most of my UX design nowadays. Placing buttons and important items towards the right of a page, with lesser items further right. The only exception is if it is a destructive action call (deleting a record etc.), then I usually place the button all the way to the right so it isn't in visual way and too tempting.
Re: Ok-Cancel versus Cancel-Ok
#116Does it bother anyone else when the "k" is not capitalized in "Ok" on a button?
Re: Ok-Cancel versus Cancel-Ok
#117On macOS I have turned on the setting that lets one tab through all controls (System Preferences → Keyboard → Shortcuts → All controls). When a “Cancel OK” dialog appears, “OK” is the default choice (in blue) but Cancel is the highlighted one[1], presumably because it’s the first option. This is incredibly convenient because ↵ will activate “OK”, while pressing the space bar will activate “Cancel”. One gets used fast…
You have one of those no-escape-key macbooks, right? Yet another epic fail by that post-apple company.
Re: Ok-Cancel versus Cancel-Ok
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, it convinced me at that time, so now I force all our designers to structure it also as Cancel-Ok. On the surface it makes sense to me, but that doesn't mean it's correct. So I go with Cancel-Ok, but holding this conviction very loosely.
This is one of those things where there is no wrong or right answer. We are just trying against all odds to find something that will help users feel comfortable and make the right choice. My philosophy used to be to follow the native platform convention, so on Mac it's Cancel-OK, on Windows or Linux it's OK-Cancel. Seems simple, do what people are used to. But what about a web app that someone uses on Mac at work and…
> Linux it's OK-Cancel.
KDE yes, but GNOME and most GTK+ desktops and apps are definitely Cancel/OK.
Google used to be pretty mixed, but Android and the Material re-designed stuffs seems to be pretty much Cancel/OK too.
Re: Ok-Cancel versus Cancel-Ok
#119All of these are wrong, because they're answering the wrong question. Stop second-guessing the user! Get rid of all these buttons, but provide a mechanism to UNDO the change. Linear undo plus the option to reinstate "factory default" settings is probably optimal for most applications. Would you tolerate a text editor that asked you to confirm each letter you typed?
You're assuming there is no useful purpose for the dialog box other than asking the user to confirm their action.
Re: Ok-Cancel versus Cancel-Ok
#120All of these are wrong, because they're answering the wrong question. Stop second-guessing the user! Get rid of all these buttons, but provide a mechanism to UNDO the change. Linear undo plus the option to reinstate "factory default" settings is probably optimal for most applications. Would you tolerate a text editor that asked you to confirm each letter you typed?
1. Side effects may be permanently destructive, making Undo infeasible. How do you undo emptying the recycle bin? How do you undo posting a cert on the public internet?
2. Cancel is not just for “are you sure”. It’s often there for “never mind, let me go back”, as in the file open dialog example.