Timeline for Drawing users' attention to unrecoverable actions?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
12 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Nov 7, 2015 at 23:11 | comment | added | Pacerier | @KonradRudolph, @Andrew, Exactly. Usability rule number 1: Users don't read, so what they see looks like: i.sstatic.net/2wDaw.png and they would just click through the checkboxes, especially when they are trying to get work done while being semi-awake and quarter-drunk after a long Saturday night. Matt's solution (typing "delete") works better in practice for dangerous non-undoable actions. | |
| Jun 27, 2012 at 9:41 | comment | added | user | This could easily be combined with @JeffH's suggestion, too. I suppose it depends on exactly how critical the action is and just how much work fixing it after the fact would be. xkcd.com/970 | |
| Jun 26, 2012 at 13:57 | history | edited | Andrew Leach | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 99 characters in body
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| Jun 26, 2012 at 13:54 | comment | added | zzzzBov | Make sure that the positive action button (OK, Delete, Launch the Nukes, etc) is disabled. Simply toggling the disabled state when the check box is toggled will tell the user that additional actions are required, rather than having them think that they deleted something only to find that it's still there. | |
| Jun 26, 2012 at 12:09 | history | edited | Andrew Leach | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Responded to comments
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| Jun 26, 2012 at 10:23 | comment | added | Konrad Rudolph | “OK” as a synonym for “launch the nukes” sounds too innocuous. People often don’t read the text, just the buttons. | |
| Jun 25, 2012 at 21:53 | comment | added | Maltiriel | This approach sounds really good, along with adding more styling to the dialog. It's good to hear that others have used it with success, too. | |
| Jun 25, 2012 at 21:27 | comment | added | Zelda | I don't like that your buttons are still okay/cancel. Ideally the button should at least say Delete. Interesting way to try and force the user to read the whole dialog though | |
| Jun 25, 2012 at 21:21 | comment | added | dnbrv | From personal experience (user-side), I think typing reinforces the commitment much better than a checkbox. Especially, when it's typing something random like a string of numbers (Western Digital's RAID formatting utility). | |
| Jun 25, 2012 at 20:54 | comment | added | Matt Lavoie | Yeah I suppose actually typing "Do the horrible thing" before you can continue might be a bit overkill, but I have totally pulled that one before didn't really feel bad about it. | |
| Jun 25, 2012 at 20:52 | comment | added | GotDibbs | I was just about to post this. I've done this a bunch of times. When combined with the additonal styling and colors mentioned by @MattLavoie in his answer, and disabling the OK button until the checkbox is checked, it works really well. | |
| Jun 25, 2012 at 20:50 | history | answered | Andrew Leach | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
