What’s Wrong with this Dialog?

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20 Nov 2008

User Experience (UX)

There’s a glaring issue with this dialog from the Amazon MP3 Downloader. What is it?

For comparison, here’s another dialog in Windows

And a third

I won’t fault you if you don’t happen to see the problem. In fact, you really need to have the mouse in your hand before your muscle memory points out the issue.

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posted by Pete Brown on Thursday, November 20, 2008
filed under: User Experience (UX)

23 comments for “What’s Wrong with this Dialog?”

Reply
timheuersays:
Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 5:43:04 PM
position of the OK button?
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Jason Bocksays:
Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 5:45:24 PM
The OK/Cancel buttons are reversed?
Reply
Robertsays:
Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 5:48:12 PM
cancel should be on the right.
Reply
Ramsays:
Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 6:02:49 PM
OK and Cancel buttons are reversed... ;-)
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Martinsays:
Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 6:53:33 PM
The Cancel and OK button are aronud the wrong way
Reply
Cory Smithsays:
Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 7:02:54 PM
No way to minimize it?
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Peter Brombergsays:
Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 7:41:58 PM
On the Amazon dialog, the positions of the OK and CANCEL buttons are reversed. Also, it appears that the ADVANCED button has focus.

Of course, I don't use Amazon's MP3 downloader, preferring to download their purchased MP3's directly.
Reply
Pete Brownsays:
Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 7:45:39 PM
D'oh! Everyone but Cory got it. Sorry Cory :)

We get hung up on conventions such as colors and shapes, but one of the most important conventions is position. People generally look for menus and navigation starting at the top left, and for dialog buttons on the bottom right. The position of those buttons is also important, as you have to do a double-take otherwise.

Pete
Reply
Patrick Burrowssays:
Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 10:44:55 PM
It is implying you actually pay for music?
Reply
Pete Brownsays:
Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 10:58:49 PM
@Patrick

Perhaps, but I never ended up buying the music anyway :)

Pete
Reply
Parag Mehtasays:
Friday, November 21, 2008 at 1:06:39 AM
May be the target is Mac users. They spend lavishly! :)
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Davesays:
Friday, November 21, 2008 at 10:53:31 AM
lol... I had a peer write a tool to support some work I was doing, and she put the OK button to the right of Cancel. I ran it three times and actually told her it wasn't working for me before I realized I was Cancelling out of the thing instead of pressing OK!
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Kevin Lesays:
Friday, November 21, 2008 at 2:43:24 PM
Advanced? Is this only for users who have PhD degrees? How about something like "Additional settings" or simply "More" or something like that? Microsoft, I believe, is guilty of that and if memory serves me right, that nomenclature was started by Microsoft 13, 14 years ago (around Windows 95), and was unfortunately followed by everyone else.
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Piccolo Principesays:
Friday, November 21, 2008 at 6:07:30 PM
In Gnome (for instance Ubuntu) there's no such a thing like Ok or Cancel... only Close buttons and the configuration is applied instantly. So Gnome users don't have the "muscle memory" needed...
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Johnny Vegasays:
Friday, November 21, 2008 at 6:24:16 PM
It also doesn't appear to have keyboard shortcuts and that you need to use the mouse for everything.
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Vatarsays:
Friday, November 21, 2008 at 6:38:37 PM
It's a Mac thing. /yawn
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Samsays:
Saturday, November 22, 2008 at 12:14:31 AM
Its windows.
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Lars Dsays:
Saturday, November 22, 2008 at 4:55:38 AM
Ballon tips are only available when the app is minimized to the tray?
Reply
Ivansays:
Saturday, November 22, 2008 at 7:57:29 AM
you wouldn't believe how many ui architects in the real world don't konw this basic rule. at very large and prominent web businesses too.
Reply
Chrissays:
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 at 5:22:40 PM
Wow! I can't believe you're wasting our time with this ... I thought this was a serious question!
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Pete Brownsays:
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 at 5:53:44 PM
@Chris

That *is* serious, and developers make UX mistakes like that all the time. Users often suffer because of us.

Pete
Reply
Richardsays:
Thursday, November 27, 2008 at 3:55:34 PM
RealPlayer is a culprit of this as well. I've lost count of the times I've inadvertently clicked "OK" instead of "Cancel" in the "Do you want RealPlayer to steal all of your file associations and completely screw up your computer" dialog box!
Reply
Neilsays:
Friday, November 28, 2008 at 11:30:05 AM
You guys use your mouse too much :) There's another problem with the dialog: the Advanced button appears to have focus by default, which means if you whack Enter on your keyboard to dismiss the dialog you'll actually get the Advanced options up instead.

Neil