Re: [Usability]HIG should advise against Yes/No in confirmation alerts

[John Levon <levon movementarian org>]

On Mon, Apr 28, 2003 at 02:37:11PM -0400, Sean Middleditch wrote:

> There's also the psychological issues with it.  With the "you have
> unsaved documents" and the action buttons, the user is in control; the
> user makes all the decision.  Asking a question, the computer is now
> directing the user, which makes the computer feel as if in control.  It

This sounds like a reasonably persuasive argument. My worry is that if
you don't phrase a question, users will see it as a notification alert
not a confirmation alert briefly, and this will momentarily confuse
them.

That may or may not be an issue, what we really need are some lab test
results so we can stop arguing in a vacuum.

> to come up with a question to ask.  And then there is consistancy; do
> you ask them if they want to save first, or ask them if they want to
> quit anyway, or ask them what they'd like to do, etc.  In the event a

Consistency is mostly solved by off the shelf dialogs in the API and
careful application of a well-written HIG :)

regards
john