Re: [Usability] Re: Keyboard navigation- outstanding issues

[Michael Rogers <mrogers mth kcl ac uk>]

On Sat, Sep 29, 2001 at 06:53:24PM +1200, Matthew Thomas wrote:
> Where the main action button in an
> alert or dialog is extremely dangerous (such as `Format Disk' or `Launch
> Missile'), `Cancel' may be the default button, responding to both Enter
> *and* Escape. In these cases, the main action button needs its own
> access key to ensure accessibility.

Perhaps there should be no default button in such cases, for two reasons:

(1) The 'only one obvious way' principle, as above.
(2) In most dialogs, <Enter> closes the dialog and performs the action. If 
in a few cases it closes the dialog *without* performing the action, the 
users may incorrectly assume that the action has been performed. This is 
particularly serious when the action is dangerous.


Michael