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I am currently working on a standard for confirming destructive actions, which I have to split into four levels:

  1. no confirmation necessary
  2. ???
  3. a simple dialog that explains what the dangers are
  4. a dialog that explains the dangers and requires an unusual action to confirm.

Now, level 2 should be more intrusive than level 1, but less than level 3 and it needs to work with touch as well as with mouse and keyboard.

I already implemented an undo function, that's why level 1 exists at all, but my supervisor wants something even more secure.

What are some good patterns to do this?

  • Double click is annoying and will lead to spam clicking
  • Long press takes too long and is unconventional on desktop
  • Having a flyout is a middle ground, as it doesn't excel or suck at any specific thing
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  • Can you explain why you need 4 levels? Following KISS, there should only be (1) and (3) (plus undo, of course, for both). I especially don't understand the (need for the) difference between (3) and (4)?
    – virtualnobi
    Jan 14, 2022 at 17:23
  • Maybe, "show a toast message at top right corner that automatically disappears after some time"?
    – Ajeet Shah
    Jan 14, 2022 at 17:56
  • @virtualnobi 1 & 3 are for KISS, 2 is for my supervisor, and 4 is for extremely critical stuff like deleting accounts.
    – Ubus99
    Jan 17, 2022 at 7:10

3 Answers 3

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In my application, I didn't want users to be likely to accidentally delete things, but I also didn't want it to be too much effort to delete as it's easy to undelete.

I settled on a dropdown button:

delete button in red, confirm delete underneath in dropdown

  • It works using any input method: mouse, fat fingered phone taps, keyboard, screen reader.
  • While I can't think of any applications that specifically have a delete button like this, it's obvious what needs to be done to actually delete something. Dropdown buttons in general are common across devices and operating systems.
  • While you can accidentally delete something, it's less likely to happen because you need more than a single click/tap/etc. In fact, it's even not a proper double click because you have to move your mouse to confirm the delete, even if it's a very short distance.
  • It was extremely easy to do in the library I'm using.
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In Adobe programs, a window appears with information about the change that is about to be made with two buttons and a checkbox:

  • OK to continue with the action
  • Cancel to go back and abort the action
  • Don't show again to avoid repetitive alerts when the user is already sure of the consequences

enter image description here

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  • that would be a Level 3, i am searching for something less intrusive
    – Ubus99
    Jan 14, 2022 at 14:56
  • Level 3 is a danger alert, this is just info and the user can decide to see it again or not.
    – Danielillo
    Jan 14, 2022 at 14:57
  • maybe i wasn't specific enough, but what i wanted to describe as level 3 in my original question is exactly like the image you shared. that is too disruptive to user flow, i only want to prevent slips on Level 2, not mistakes.
    – Ubus99
    Jan 14, 2022 at 15:01
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You could make the user drag something to a trash on desktop, or swipe left on mobile. Both are understood deletion gestures for their devices, and are less intrusive than a dialog.

You could also put the Delete function in a dropdown menu, which will make the user have to pull down the menu and then click on the Delete action.

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  • the first two ideas are out, since the same interaction must be used for both, but i am going to try the last one right now.
    – Ubus99
    Jan 14, 2022 at 15:16

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