Steven Voyles

We’ve all run across this problem, you need to give the user some kind of warning when he is about to do something irreversible so that you can be sure of his intentions. Deleting an item from a list, removing a user from the database, or any other permanent and potentially bad action has traditionally been dealt with through the use of a warning message. You know, that ‘OK’ button that most users just click through in an effort to move the stupid box that’s now in the way only to realize a half second later that whatever action they just submitted to the system was not, in fact, ‘OK’. A List Apart has a great article on some alternatives that solve the problems of action confirmation much better than our old friend the message box.

“Warnings cause us to lose our work, to mistrust our computers, and to blame ourselves. A simple but foolproof design methodology solves the problem: “Never use a warning when you mean undo.” And when a user is deleting their work, you always mean undo.”

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