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Why ‘Ok’ Buttons in Dialog Boxes Work Best on the Right

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Re: Why ‘Ok’ Buttons in Dialog Boxes Work Best on the Right

#41

Post by heliodor »

hammock wrote: post #37
capex wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is what I came here to say- one more reason not mentioned for putting the primary action in the corner is that it's easier to find and fix on with your eyes and the mouse.

You don't have to find it. Few people do. People read through the buttons from left to right. The thing is, when dialog buttons use standardized vocabulary (ok, cancel, yes, no) you don't have to read the other button, you just assume it says the opposite of the first button. So I'd like the OP to provide some proof of this three scan pattern. I think that happens on a Mac where the buttons are labeled with verbs. When I was using Windows with the standardized yes/no/ok/cancel, I processed dialog boxes much quicker than on the Mac. I'd simply read the one or two words in the title (usually a verb), read the leftmost button, then decide whether to click it or whether to freak out. It goes like this:

Computer: "Delete?" Me: Yes.

Computer: "Delete?" Me: Whoa! Who said anything about delete? Let me read the buttons carefully and find the Cancel button.

The mistakes happen only a small fraction of the time, so the most efficient user flow is "verb?" -> "yes".

Re: Why ‘Ok’ Buttons in Dialog Boxes Work Best on the Right

#42

Post by roryokane »

unconed wrote: post #24

Ok 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…

The section of the Apple HIG about specific button labels is "UI Element Guidelines: Windows > Alerts": https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/usere...

Microsoft's interface guidelines also give similar advice: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511268.aspx#respon...

bonus: Here is a bug report whose comments includes a long explanation that I wrote, on why we should label the buttons "Save/Don't Save/Cancel" whether the platform standard says to or not: http://sourceforge.net/apps/ideatorrent/notepad-plus/ideator...

Re: Why ‘Ok’ Buttons in Dialog Boxes Work Best on the Right

#43

Post by ancelotpinto »

"If you’re an inexperienced designer who doesn’t trust your own judgment, then user testing is probably your best bet. But if you’re a knowledgeable and experienced designer who can think about problems from the user’s perspective, then you can solve this problem through design analysis."

... I really like the `either go with me or your an idiot` push... false dilemma anyone?

Re: Why ‘Ok’ Buttons in Dialog Boxes Work Best on the Right

#44

Post by altrego99 »

unconed wrote: post #24

Ok 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…

This is one place where I found myself to differ with Apple's usually brilliant UI norms. Trouble with this particular guideline is that it makes me (as the user) have to read and process the responses in my mind, making response slower. A Cancel/No/Yes with a question "Save and quit?" makes the same sense to me and allows me, to process the known buttons almost reflexively.

Re: Why ‘Ok’ Buttons in Dialog Boxes Work Best on the Right

#46

Post by hrktb »

nathan_long wrote: post #31
twelvechairs wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 h…

Kind of like how when you're going to choose a variable name, you don't do a linguistic study first?

Well, ultimately it's the balance between your time and you user's time.

Re: Why ‘Ok’ Buttons in Dialog Boxes Work Best on the Right

#47

Post by greggman »

altrego99 wrote: post #44
unconed wrote: post #24

Ok 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…

This is one place where I found myself to differ with Apple's usually brilliant UI norms. Trouble with this particular guideline is that it makes me (as the user) have to read and process the responses in my mind, making response slower. A Cancel/No/Yes with a question "Save and quit?" makes the same sense to me and allows me, to process the known buttons almost reflexively.

The problem with Yes/No/Cancel is it requires the user to look at the question which can often be the opposite of what the user expects. Example

Save? Yes/No Delete? Yes/No Overwrite? Yes/No

Those all have very different meanings when answering "Yes" where as when you put the meaning on the button the button has meaning all by itself. No need to look at the description above it.

Re: Why ‘Ok’ Buttons in Dialog Boxes Work Best on the Right

#48

Post by mixmastamyk »

51Cards wrote: post #8

I 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…

Never thought of word order, but while reading forward is to the right and backward is to the left.

Also in math (in graphing for X), left is negative, and right is positive.

Re: Why ‘Ok’ Buttons in Dialog Boxes Work Best on the Right

#49

Post by nilliams »

greggman wrote: post #47
altrego99 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one place where I found myself to differ with Apple's usually brilliant UI norms. Trouble with this particular guideline is that it makes me (as the user) have to read and process the responses in my mind, making response slower. A Cancel/No/Yes with a question "Save and quit?" makes the same sense to me and allows me, to process the known buttons almost reflexively.

The problem with Yes/No/Cancel is it requires the user to look at the question which can often be the opposite of what the user expects. Example Save? Yes/No Delete? Yes/No Overwrite? Yes/No Those all have very different meanings when answering "Yes" where as when you put the meaning on the button the button has meaning all by itself. No need to look at the description above it.

That's a good point. There's a cash machine near me with a trick question:

'Are you sure you wish to continue without a receipt?' Yes/No

I have several times just seen the word 'receipt' and instinctively hit No (because I don't want a receipt). This cancels the process and spits my card out and I have to start over. Annoying.

But then perhaps that's more an argument against badly worded questions. This is a Santander ATM (Spanish company) so I do wonder if it's a poor translation (or perhaps that is just the standard phrasing for all ATMs in that country).

Generally speaking I'd agree that if you keep your questions simple, then Yes/No buttons are quicker to mentally process. Most cash machines simply ask: 'Would you like a receipt?' and my 'No' instinct is the correct one.

Re: Why ‘Ok’ Buttons in Dialog Boxes Work Best on the Right

#50

Post by vacri »

dcminter wrote: post #11

"...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.

Given an ideal test subject, that's what they'll do. Actual test subjects, on the other hand...

(paraphrased from "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is")

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