Re: Default button in dialogs

[Gregory Joseph Merchan <merchan reef phys lsu edu>]

Presently there are two competing proposed guidelines for dialog boxes:

http://www.ndirect.co.uk/~s.robertson/software/ui-guide/html/dialog-guidelines.html

http://www.delanet.com/~jkmissig/interface-guide.txt

As a contributor to the latter I clearly favor it, though the former looks nicer and makes some excellent points with regard to modality.

I would like to see what the result is of combining them with conflicts resolved in favor of the #interface guidelines. We approached the problem with only a few general principles and no testing at our disposal and have rather unsurpisingly reproduced some parts of the acclaimed Mac guidelines. In particular, and in favor of the #interface guidelines, these parts of the Mac guidelines should be noted:

http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/mac/HIGuidelines/HIGuidelines-139.html#HEADING139-0

http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/mac/HIGOS8Guide/thig-52.html#HEADING52-114

Also the first paragraph of:
http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/mac/HIGuidelines/HIGuidelines-139.html

Of particular note in that paragraph is that, "The default button is not necessarily the button in the lower-right corner; it should be the one for the action that the user is most likely to want to perform." But for one, I can think of no principle which is a substitute for user-testing to determine what the user is most likely to want to perform. That principle is that irreversible destructive actions are generally undesirable; hence, the exception on point 4 of the #interface guidelines, "... except for cases where affirmative is destructive ..."

I hope the matter of dialog box layout can be considered settled in this way and that as much as possible can be codified before the release of the various 2.0's.

Cheers,
Greg Merchan
merchan phys lsu edu
auspex on GimpNET