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Comment by unconed | Hacker News Reader

Ok and Cancel are the wrong button labels anyway. The Apple HIG say that buttons should be labeled with verbs that signify the action taken.

For example, Cancel/No/Yes becomes "Don't Quit" "Don't Save" "Save". Much more intuitive, and it gives additional reason to put the positive button last: users should be encouraged to read all the options available before deciding—and can get the gist by reading just the buttons and ignoring the message.

Otherwise you get dialog box blindness. If you've ever observed someone doing this, it's maddening. They try something, a dialog pops up, they dismiss it, nothing happens (because the dialog box said "Can't complete this action"). I've seen people repeat this up to 4 times.

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The section of the Apple HIG about specific button labels is "UI Element Guidelines: Windows > Alerts": https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/usere...

Microsoft's interface guidelines also give similar advice: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511268.aspx#respon...

bonus: Here is a bug report whose comments includes a long explanation that I wrote, on why we should label the buttons "Save/Don't Save/Cancel" whether the platform standard says to or not: http://sourceforge.net/apps/ideatorrent/notepad-plus/ideator...

    Save this document before quitting?

    <Don't Quit>    <Don't Save> <Save>

     -----------------------------------

    Save this document before quitting?

    <Cancel>                 <No> <Yes>

Although, I've always preferred the Apple system of "Destructive"......"Neutral".."Constructive"

So that destructive operations are on the far left, isolated from non-destructive operations on the far right.

Yielding,

  [Don't Save]          [Cancel]  [Save]

Also, in a window title bar (more classical than OS X now),

  [Close]               [Minimize/Shade] [Zoom]

Any of the buttons grouped on the left side should be considered "destructive actions", and any actions on the right side should be considered "safe" or "non-destructive actions". However, this isn't the whole story. In cases where the main, intended action is destructive, the primary action verb should still be on the right, but the [Cancel] button should be the default enabled button (what Return key does when pressed)—e.g., emptying the Trash.

I was on the phone troubleshooting a webcam problem with my dad for an hour before he even mentioned the popup he had been clicking through (the one that told us why it wasn't working).

If you are expecting users to read your error messages, you're doing it wrong.

> If you are expecting users to read your error messages, you're doing it wrong.

Hence it's even more important to call for action, not status in the button. If a button reads 'save' it has a much higher chance of being read than then long text before 'Ok'

Actually it becomes "Cancel", "Don't Save", "Save". While there is huge benefits in using descriptive verbs to describe the actions taken, there is also a huge benefit in having a single standard word for "What? No! I didn't want to do that. Stop!"

This is one place where I found myself to differ with Apple's usually brilliant UI norms. Trouble with this particular guideline is that it makes me (as the user) have to read and process the responses in my mind, making response slower. A Cancel/No/Yes with a question "Save and quit?" makes the same sense to me and allows me, to process the known buttons almost reflexively.

The problem with Yes/No/Cancel is it requires the user to look at the question which can often be the opposite of what the user expects. Example

Save? Yes/No Delete? Yes/No Overwrite? Yes/No

Those all have very different meanings when answering "Yes" where as when you put the meaning on the button the button has meaning all by itself. No need to look at the description above it.

That's a good point. There's a cash machine near me with a trick question:

'Are you sure you wish to continue without a receipt?' Yes/No

I have several times just seen the word 'receipt' and instinctively hit No (because I don't want a receipt). This cancels the process and spits my card out and I have to start over. Annoying.

But then perhaps that's more an argument against badly worded questions. This is a Santander ATM (Spanish company) so I do wonder if it's a poor translation (or perhaps that is just the standard phrasing for all ATMs in that country).

Generally speaking I'd agree that if you keep your questions simple, then Yes/No buttons are quicker to mentally process. Most cash machines simply ask: 'Would you like a receipt?' and my 'No' instinct is the correct one.

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