Created an account just to say this...
This is the wrong question all together. Yes/No is the wrong idea. Think about labeling the buttons Save/Reboot/Cancel, This allows the user to be sure they are going to get the expected results.
Why ‘Ok’ Buttons in Dialog Boxes Work Best on the Right
21–30 of 83 posts
Re: Why ‘Ok’ Buttons in Dialog Boxes Work Best on the Right
#22I still can't stand this in Android 4.0 Yes/No, OK/Cancel, Open/Close, On/Off, Come/Go, Stay/Leave, Buy/Sell, Gas/Brake, Thanks/No Thanks... In English anyhow we are used to Positive option first, Negative option second... it's how our language flows and thus how we think. We read Left to Right... we expect the positive option on the Left, i.e. first, and the negative option on the Right, second. Just how I view it a…
This has nothing to do with English language. As a culminating point of a dialog box, I believe the suggested action should be towards the corner, not hidden between a 'Cancel' button in the right corner and the rest of the dialog box.
Re: Why ‘Ok’ Buttons in Dialog Boxes Work Best on the Right
#23"...if you’re a knowledgeable and experienced designer ... then you can solve this problem through design analysis [as opposed to user testing]" But if you're an empirical scientist you will use user testing to confirm or deny your hypothesis rather than assuming your rationalisations hold in the real world.
Exactly. Most of the article was based on some sort of unjustified "innate" knowledge of how users behave. He dismisses platform consistency as being unscientific and then goes on to present his own equally unscientific arguments for ignoring the convention. In the face of these two alternatives, I'd choose platform consistency every single time.
Designers work like this for good reason. Yes it reads like unproven pseudo-science, and it is, but there is reason behind this. When you work with thousands of concepts like this every day you can't empirically test them all across all cultures and environments (it would take forever and a day!) - you just develop a thought of what makes sense for you and have a basic think about why that might be so. This may not hold for all situations, but its going to be on average a better opinon than that of most other people (who will put a dialog box in one order or other without even stopping to think about why).
Re: Why ‘Ok’ Buttons in Dialog Boxes Work Best on the Right
#24Ok and Cancel are the wrong button labels anyway. The Apple HIG say that buttons should be labeled with verbs that signify the action taken.
For example, Cancel/No/Yes becomes "Don't Quit" "Don't Save" "Save". Much more intuitive, and it gives additional reason to put the positive button last: users should be encouraged to read all the options available before deciding—and can get the gist by reading just the buttons and ignoring the message.
Otherwise you get dialog box blindness. If you've ever observed someone doing this, it's maddening. They try something, a dialog pops up, they dismiss it, nothing happens (because the dialog box said "Can't complete this action"). I've seen people repeat this up to 4 times.
Re: Why ‘Ok’ Buttons in Dialog Boxes Work Best on the Right
#25Here's an actual eye tracking study that comes to the opposite result of the linked article: http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?571 This isn't really surprising. The article claimed he just knew from experience and didn't need to do a test, so the whole article was just bullshit. I was laughing out loud when he said users read all the options before picking one anyway, since I've seen that not happen in countless test…
The lukew eye tracking study is for forms, not dialog boxes. And not just any forms, but it looks only at forms which have a list of left-aligned items which the user is working and scanning down. As stated: "the alignment of actions with a form’s input elements provides a clear path to completion that helps people complete forms faster."
This article is about dialog boxes. They are different. Dialog boxes usually have no form input elements and usually do not have a list of items all aligned on the left like on the lukew tracking study.
Re: Why ‘Ok’ Buttons in Dialog Boxes Work Best on the Right
#26I still can't stand this in Android 4.0 Yes/No, OK/Cancel, Open/Close, On/Off, Come/Go, Stay/Leave, Buy/Sell, Gas/Brake, Thanks/No Thanks... In English anyhow we are used to Positive option first, Negative option second... it's how our language flows and thus how we think. We read Left to Right... we expect the positive option on the Left, i.e. first, and the negative option on the Right, second. Just how I view it a…
In most of the world, though, it's Brake/Gas. And I personally prefer Cancel/OK because I usually want to click OK and my right thumb happens to be on the right side of the screen.
That just because if you had gas in the middle it would be uncomfortable for long drives.
It's the same reason the clutch is on the side as well, not in them middle.
I suppose you could swap the cluch and gas (leaving brake in the middle) - but clutch comes first, then gas, so the convention of first on the left is realized.
Re: Why ‘Ok’ Buttons in Dialog Boxes Work Best on the Right
#27Platform consistency has to come first, but I agree with the argument that OK/Cancel is backwards. Apple chose those labels (as Cancel/OK) for the buttons in the original Mac dialogs in 1984. They tested other pairs, but those two labels won. With those two labels, order matters a lot . "Cancel" is the more meaningful word of the two. You've just told the user that something unexpected will happen if they proceed. "O…
Actually Cancel/OK is backwards. :)
I had to swap their positions in firefox - one of the first things I changed when I ran it for the first time.
> "OK" can be construed to mean "OK, well then obviously don't do that!"
And yes can be construed to mean "yes don't do that" - come on, that's a completely ridiculous argument!
Re: Why ‘Ok’ Buttons in Dialog Boxes Work Best on the Right
#28Platform consistency has to come first, but I agree with the argument that OK/Cancel is backwards. Apple chose those labels (as Cancel/OK) for the buttons in the original Mac dialogs in 1984. They tested other pairs, but those two labels won. With those two labels, order matters a lot . "Cancel" is the more meaningful word of the two. You've just told the user that something unexpected will happen if they proceed. "O…
Gnome currently apes Apple. Positive actions are on the right.
Re: Why ‘Ok’ Buttons in Dialog Boxes Work Best on the Right
#29Platform consistency has to come first, but I agree with the argument that OK/Cancel is backwards. Apple chose those labels (as Cancel/OK) for the buttons in the original Mac dialogs in 1984. They tested other pairs, but those two labels won. With those two labels, order matters a lot . "Cancel" is the more meaningful word of the two. You've just told the user that something unexpected will happen if they proceed. "O…
Actually Cancel/OK is backwards. :) I had to swap their positions in firefox - one of the first things I changed when I ran it for the first time. > "OK" can be construed to mean "OK, well then obviously don't do that!" And yes can be construed to mean "yes don't do that" - come on, that's a completely ridiculous argument!
"OK" can mean: "ok yes you've changed my mind, I agree, bad idea".
"Cancel" never means: "cancel and proceed".
Re: Why ‘Ok’ Buttons in Dialog Boxes Work Best on the Right
#30I know I read somewhere (but I can't remember where now), that it's far superior to put the actual actions you're doing in the buttons, rather than a completely non-descriptive OK/Cancel.
Not "Do you really want to quit? OK / Cancel" but "Do you really want to quit? Quit / Cancel".