Working on both Windows and OSX, I have some habits on both.
In alert dialogs, there is a huge usability variance between both operating systems.
In the latter, you can either tap enter
and have the focused choice accepted (where focused choice is in general the "logical answer"), or you need to use your mouse to choose another answer.
For example (sorry, picture in french), when shutting my computer down, my mac asks me whether I really want to shut it down. The focused choice is shut down
, but in case I was wrong, I can still cancel
.
In order to click on cancel
, my only solution (at least that I know of) is to click with my cursor.
On Windows, you can use the tab
and shift-tab
keys in order to navigate through the answers you can give.
Although I am more of a mac-user, I really think that the windows approach is much better on that one.
So, my question is/are;
a) Is there a patent story behind all this, or is it a deliberate choice from apple not to add this feature.
b) Do you think there could be a drawback to having the ability to navigate through alert dialog buttons, or would you always recommend (e.g. in web apps) to give the ability to the user to navigate through the buttons with the keyboard?