Classic UI mistake – OK/Cancel buttons for a Yes/No question.
Posted by jpluimers on 2010/04/12
Just unlinked/linked my DropBox account because of some synchronization issues, then got this messagebox:
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Dropbox
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There is already a folder in your My Documents folder called ‘My Dropbox’. Do you want to merge all the existing files in that folder into your Dropbox?
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OK Cancel
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Sometimes I wonder if programmers ever are going to learn to get the basic UI things right :-)
(This was in version 0.7.110.0 of dropbox)
–jeroen
PS:
I absolutely love the functionality of dropbox, and to their credit: they do get most of their UI right.
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 
Joao Levada said
Hmmm… that’s from the new version of Google Docs:
Joao Levada said
UI mistake?
My mistake…
Here is the link
click here
Lex Li said
The task dialog introduced since Windows Vista is the ultimate way to resolve such issues,
http://weblogs.asp.net/kennykerr/archive/2006/07/18/Windows-Vista-for-Developers-_1320_-Part-2-_1320_-Task-Dialogs-in-Depth.aspx
Stuart Clennett said
@Osama – I know *nothing* about MacOS development, but surely the “Don’t Merge” and “Merge” buttons are still created by the programmer and so this article is still relevant?
Osama said
What I like about MacOS is the standardization of the Dialogs….
This would be:
Do you want to merge all the existing files in that folder into your Dropbox?
[Don’t Merge] [Cancel] [Merge]
Christian Wimmer said
Buttons should contain some more information than what just a word can contain.
So a user should get information about the action a button initiates. Imo Vista helped to solve this problem (in parts) by introducing TaskDialogs. So every button can contain more information. However, this doesn’t solve the remaining problem source itself: the programmer.
So every programmer must know basic design principles like:
Schneiderman’s Design Principles
Every programmer should write down a list of guidelines and rules to follow. In companies such rules should be standard (which isn’t standard). In addition it is really worth to rethink these rules before every new project (or less) so the rules and guidelines can be improved and are not stuck to obsolete thinking.
BarryOw said
My personal all-time (German) favourite is:
“Möchten Sie wirklich abbrechen?”
[Ja] [Abbrechen]
Translation:
“Are you sure you want to cancel?”
[Yes] [Cancel]