UI Question
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How about a "Close but no cigar" button?
Henry Minute Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.” I wouldn't let CG touch my Abacus! When you're wrestling a gorilla, you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is. Cogito ergo thumb - Sucking my thumb helps me to think.
I generally prefer Save - save , don't close Discard Changes - revert to original/clear or close without saving depending on behaviour of rest of system. Close - close, prompt for save if required If you click close and there are unsaved changes present a confirmation dialog The options NEVER CLICK THIS and Global Thermonuclear War are of course the other options
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krumia wrote:
Don't save, don't close
And just what would that button do? :doh:
I love go-o-o-o-ld!
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Greetings, I'm building a new application template and I'm not sure how to handle one part of the User Interface. If a user has a configuration screen open and they wish to close it I don't know what buttons I should include. Theoretically, you could have 'Close', 'Cancel', 'Ok', and 'Apply' - which seems a bit much. Close: Close without saving. Cancel: Close without saving. OK: Save then close. Apply: Save but don't close. It used to be that I'd just follow what Microsoft does but I've found the 'OK' button confuses people. They usually end up pressing 'Apply' and then 'OK'. There comes a point when multiple options just confuse people. I'd like to reduce the number of buttons. Maybe 'OK' and 'Close' where the user gets a warning message if 'Close' would result in changes being lost. What do you think?
MehGerbil wrote:
Close: Close without saving.
Cancel: Close without saving.
OK: Save then close.
Apply: Save but don't close.depends on what you want to ascertain; 1. close/ok; is fine for notifications like "check your mailbox" or "we accidently deleted your database", but no response is required really, its a nag prompt and can even auto close if its being ignored 2. cancel; system is about to perform an action that needs to be authorised/acknowledged, can use it for "non-repudiation" and even track as part of user activity. 3. [ok/yes/no]/cancel]; can be a little confusing for a user becasue they're not really sure if the action is going to execute correctly - cancel, revert while ignoring the requested task? yes, execute as planned? no, could mean...execute a variation on the task or dont execute at all in which case its now the same as cancel again. and also how many variations are there for the particular task? its fine for a simple confirmation like an action with one of two option like "would you like to register for our monthly newsletter" while saving their user profile, the profile gets saved anyway. i use a wizard for extremely complicated scenarios but for the most part it depends on the use cases being catered to. software dev is a complicated excercise and more often than not a single view could have multiple scenarios being catered for, so i use form input and layout to collect data for each scenario(i.e. click this and show/hide that...highlight these...re-load this grid) and simply prompt the user with an ok/cancel option - "you are doing this? ok/cancel?" and at this point pass or fail the whole scenario. if i then prompted the user with "you are doing this? yes/no/cancel?" i would be setting myself up for a moot point of my own doing because if they are not sure the we really should proceed and the whole scenario should fail...so no==cancel and we have the confusing recursion again and in most cases it because the developer is unsure/careless! it's really a language comprehension issue not a programming paradigm! know the outcome being catered for and prompt around the context of the desired outcome.
No one knows the things of a man except the spirit of that man; likewise no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God whom we have received. He who is joined to the Lord, is ONE Spirit with him(Jesus) - 1Cor 2:10-16 & 6:17
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Greetings, I'm building a new application template and I'm not sure how to handle one part of the User Interface. If a user has a configuration screen open and they wish to close it I don't know what buttons I should include. Theoretically, you could have 'Close', 'Cancel', 'Ok', and 'Apply' - which seems a bit much. Close: Close without saving. Cancel: Close without saving. OK: Save then close. Apply: Save but don't close. It used to be that I'd just follow what Microsoft does but I've found the 'OK' button confuses people. They usually end up pressing 'Apply' and then 'OK'. There comes a point when multiple options just confuse people. I'd like to reduce the number of buttons. Maybe 'OK' and 'Close' where the user gets a warning message if 'Close' would result in changes being lost. What do you think?
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+5 on this answer, I don't know what the others have been drinking or smoking, but - Cancel, - Apply and - Close or Save are the common set of buttons you'll find in nearly all applications. "close without saving" "close with saving" How do you want to integrate THAT into an application? What's next? A button labeled "try-out-and-do-not-use-further-more-when-not-working"? I have translations in my applications that make a single word into a complete sentence kind of thingy (Arabic wording, don't ask me why). I don't want to know what a "close without saving" button would do to my layouts...
regards Torsten When I'm not working
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There's a reason that the TaskDialog was introduced by MS, and why it provides the option to give more descriptive options. What you have described is a technology-centric view of the world, and may not reflect the actions that users expect. The theory goes that you should be able to drop somebody with no computer experience in front of your application and they should be able to use your application immediately without guidance. Just because we, who use technology every day, know what these terms mean in this context doesn't mean that my father would - and I pick him because he's one of the stubbornest technophobes I've ever met. You can capitalise the word THIS all you like but it doesn't get away from the fact that it's only your opinion that this is correct.
*pre-emptive celebratory nipple tassle jiggle* - Sean Ewington
"Mind bleach! Send me mind bleach!" - Nagy Vilmos
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Pete O'Hanlon wrote:
The theory goes that you should be able to drop somebody with no computer experience in front of your application and they should be able to use your application immediately without guidance.
Nobody wants to read the manual these days...
To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems - Homer Simpson ---- Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction - Francis Picabia
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Greetings, I'm building a new application template and I'm not sure how to handle one part of the User Interface. If a user has a configuration screen open and they wish to close it I don't know what buttons I should include. Theoretically, you could have 'Close', 'Cancel', 'Ok', and 'Apply' - which seems a bit much. Close: Close without saving. Cancel: Close without saving. OK: Save then close. Apply: Save but don't close. It used to be that I'd just follow what Microsoft does but I've found the 'OK' button confuses people. They usually end up pressing 'Apply' and then 'OK'. There comes a point when multiple options just confuse people. I'd like to reduce the number of buttons. Maybe 'OK' and 'Close' where the user gets a warning message if 'Close' would result in changes being lost. What do you think?
I prefer the following as it hasnt raised any confusion for my users. Cancel - close without saving Done - close with saving In the experience that I have had, making it a 'plain enlish' as possible works the best. These two options are great for users as it's simple to understand. Now, if I needed a 'save without closing' option (and it has been rare) then I just label as 'save w/out closing' or similar.
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Pete:
Close without saving Save and close Save without closing
One more, Close without opening. My 5.
Happy Programming
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Greetings, I'm building a new application template and I'm not sure how to handle one part of the User Interface. If a user has a configuration screen open and they wish to close it I don't know what buttons I should include. Theoretically, you could have 'Close', 'Cancel', 'Ok', and 'Apply' - which seems a bit much. Close: Close without saving. Cancel: Close without saving. OK: Save then close. Apply: Save but don't close. It used to be that I'd just follow what Microsoft does but I've found the 'OK' button confuses people. They usually end up pressing 'Apply' and then 'OK'. There comes a point when multiple options just confuse people. I'd like to reduce the number of buttons. Maybe 'OK' and 'Close' where the user gets a warning message if 'Close' would result in changes being lost. What do you think?
Have you asked the USERS? Give them an option, one with and one without the Apply button. Let them tell you what they want to see and what works best for them.
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Don't forget
Halt and Catch Fire
Psychosis at 10 Film at 11 Those who do not remember the past, are doomed to repeat it. Those who do not remember the past, cannot build upon it.
Lovely trip down memory lane :) Haven't come across that instruction since playing around with 8 bit micros!
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Lovely trip down memory lane :) Haven't come across that instruction since playing around with 8 bit micros!
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Greetings, I'm building a new application template and I'm not sure how to handle one part of the User Interface. If a user has a configuration screen open and they wish to close it I don't know what buttons I should include. Theoretically, you could have 'Close', 'Cancel', 'Ok', and 'Apply' - which seems a bit much. Close: Close without saving. Cancel: Close without saving. OK: Save then close. Apply: Save but don't close. It used to be that I'd just follow what Microsoft does but I've found the 'OK' button confuses people. They usually end up pressing 'Apply' and then 'OK'. There comes a point when multiple options just confuse people. I'd like to reduce the number of buttons. Maybe 'OK' and 'Close' where the user gets a warning message if 'Close' would result in changes being lost. What do you think?
There is one application suite that I use where the devlopers forgot to call apply() in their OK() code. There are both OK and Cancel buttons, but they perform the same operation because OK does NOT save the changes. Only Apply saves the changes. Since you MUST hit apply to save the changes no matter what, they probably should have had Apply and Close. We upgraded to a new version... Maybe they fixed it, maybe they didn't, but I still keep clicking Apply+OK no matter what. I haven't even bothered to check because I have the gut feeling that if they fixed it, they probably fixed it on certain dialogs and not others!
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One button. Only. It say's "I'm Done". When the user clicks it, close the dialog and then prompt the user for what action to take. If there are changes, prompt for whether to save them or not. It's pretty simple, much like indexes that start at zero. ;P
Chris Meech I am Canadian. [heard in a local bar] In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. [Yogi Berra] posting about Crystal Reports here is like discussing gay marriage on a catholic church’s website.[Nishant Sivakumar]
I definitely like this answer. Maybe the wording can be reduced to one word, e.g. "Finish". But it also depends on your users. If they are typical Microsoft Office and Excel users, find a dialog somewhere in Office or Excel that does something similar and mimic it.
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Greetings, I'm building a new application template and I'm not sure how to handle one part of the User Interface. If a user has a configuration screen open and they wish to close it I don't know what buttons I should include. Theoretically, you could have 'Close', 'Cancel', 'Ok', and 'Apply' - which seems a bit much. Close: Close without saving. Cancel: Close without saving. OK: Save then close. Apply: Save but don't close. It used to be that I'd just follow what Microsoft does but I've found the 'OK' button confuses people. They usually end up pressing 'Apply' and then 'OK'. There comes a point when multiple options just confuse people. I'd like to reduce the number of buttons. Maybe 'OK' and 'Close' where the user gets a warning message if 'Close' would result in changes being lost. What do you think?