Are You Sure?
prog21.dadgum.com
prog21.dadgum.com
The reason the "are you sure" model has survived for so long is that it is basically perfect. A trash icon clearly signals that that is how you delete a file. The problem of accidental deletions is avoided by the confirmation dialog.
This strikes me as reinventing the wheel but badly, change for the sake of creating the illusion of progress. Yes, it's good to reconsider old dogmas. But it is usually better to start with something that is actually a problem before trying to fix it.
While I agree that the proposed solutions are worse than what we currently have, there is indeed a problem. From the article:
| But for everyone else the little prompt quickly becomes part of a two-button sequence that finds its way into your muscle memory.
The problem is that on some systems, these questions pop up way too often. That makes them annoying without actually providing protection in the worst case (due to muscle memory).
For example, if an action can be easily undone, there's no need to ask for confirmation.
More generally, I believe the real problem is to decide properly when to ask and when not to ask.