Re: [Usability] Re: UI debugging with grep

[Ernst De Ridder <hnridder informatik uni-rostock de>]

On Tue, May 06, 2003 at 10:38:58AM +0200, Janne wrote:
> This is perhaps another instance of "use actions as labels", as was
> discussed on the list recently. "OK" says nothing about what is actually
> going to happen. "Close" does. So in this respect, the HIG contradicts
> itself.

Not really. It's important here to distinguish between the system and the
messenger (the GUI). It's is generally attempted to identify a window with
the data it represents. When you click a <verb> button, you expect the
data represented by the window - and not the window itself -  to be
<verb>ed. In the case of an alert box, however, there is no represented
data; all you can do is tell the window to go away. Putting a <verb> here
suggests (because the user expects a consistent model behind everything)
that there is actually something that can be operated upon. But alert boxes
are pure messengers.

To put it differently, normal buttons are a command that the messenger
(dialogue) should pass through to the workers. The button in an alert box is
a command to the messenger itself.

As an essential meaningless interjection, OK isn't a bad choice for a button
in an alert box. Even more so because many users will already be familiar
with it.

> > 	"I just trashed all your data from the last week"
> > 	"                     [ ok ? ]                  "

"Your PPP connections will remain open until 24:00h"
"                            [ Close ]             "

No matter what verb is suggested, such counter examples will always exist.