Re: [Usability] Negating checkbox labels

[Joachim Noreiko <jnoreiko yahoo com>]

--- Dominique Würtz <housirer gmx de> wrote:

> often you have a bunch
> of checkboxes of 
> which some have "affirming" labels ("make backup
> when saving") and some 
> "negating" labels ("don't show splash screen on
> startup") (sorry, don't 
> know if these are the correct english terms). 
> This
> leads to confusion in 
> my opinion and requires the user to read very
> carefully in order to 
> avoid selecting the wrong check state.

This is something I have been thinking about as well.
It's confusing because it requires the user to analyse
a double negative.
If the checkbox label is "don't show splash screen on
startup", then unchecking it means "DON'T DO don't
show splash screen on startup".
It's harder to grasp what is meant.
 
> "Avoid using negating labels for checkboxes."

I would phrase this as "Avoid using a negative phrase
as a checkbox label".

Joachim


	
	
		
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