Wireshark-dev: Re: [Wireshark-dev] "Save ... before ..." dialogs: "Yes/No/Cancel" buttons for a

From: Guy Harris <guy@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 17 May 2007 00:34:17 -0700
Ulf Lamping wrote:

HIG tells you that the action should be on the button - it makes it much faster to handle.

More than one HIG, to be precise:

http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/OSXHIGuidelines/XHIGWindows/chapter_17_section_6.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20000961-CJECBHJE

"Buttons for addressing the alert. Button names should correspond to the action the user performs when pressing the button�for example, Erase, Save, or Delete."

http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/2.0/windows-alert.html#alert-button-order

"Button Phrasing. Write button labels as imperative verbs, for example Save, Print. This allows users to select an action with less hesitation. An active phrase also fits best with the button's role in initiating actions, as contrasted with a more passive phrase. For example Find and Log In are better buttons than than Yes and OK."

http://developer.kde.org/documentation/standards/kde/style/dialogs/simple.html

"Although Yes-No questions have an appealing simplicity, they do have a downside. While the implications of the Yes answer are usually very clear, the implications of the No answer are often not clear at all. The question "Do you want to save your changes?" serves as a good example. Pressing "Yes" will get the changes saved, but what happens when the user presses the "No" button? Rephrasing the question as an Either-Or question will help make this more clear: "Do you want to save or discard your changes?". Now there can be buttons labeled "Save" and "Discard", and the consequences of both are equally clear."

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/UxGuide/UXGuide/Windows/DialogBoxes/DialogBoxes.asp

"Prefer specific responses to Yes and No buttons. While there's nothing wrong with using Yes and No, specific responses can be understood more quickly, resulting in efficient decision making."