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#23: Users will not read dialog boxes. Especially on Windows. They will click them away and not even realize they existed. Try it. 1) Put a dialog popup in y
by WingForward 16y ago
#23: Users will not read dialog boxes. Especially on Windows. They will click them away and not even realize they existed.
Try it.
1) Put a dialog popup in your MS desktop app that says, "Clicking OK below will destroy the chair beneath you. Clicking Cancel will make a box of chocolates appear on your desk."
2) Observe when a user performs a task that produces the pop up.
3)Ask the user if they were disappointed that no chocolate appeared.
The user will look at you with incomprehension.
To clarify, I am not criticizing users. Users are users, we're not going to change their behavior with training or help manuals. We need to design around them.
- blasdel 16y agoThat's a habituation to the reality of the Win32 style — "Find reached the end of the document | OK" Users don't have an a priori instinct to dismiss dialog boxes out of spite — on the contrary, the elderly noob reads every one carefully as if the wrong choice would actually destroy the chair beneath them. A new dialog box like that would ruin their day, and mine when I get their panicked phone call now that they've gone off script. If they ever do build a mental model of the UI, they'll have learned otherwise.
- WingForward 16y agoBut because of the way UI is designed, one of the first elements of the UI mental model your elderly noob will learn is that dialog boxes are to be ignored.