Buttons & Labels: http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/userex...

Alert Dialogs: http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/userex...

edit: It's also cool to see how much has (and hasn't) changed over the years. Here's a 1995 version of the Macintosh HIG: http://dropbox.scripting.com/dave/misc/appleHumanInterfaceGu...

At the same time, for localization a verb needs to be translated into XX languages. The default Yes/No/Cancel text is already translated. Of course that's not much of an argument since you'd have to translate the rest of your program too but is there something to be said for helping people not familiar with English to be able to use your untranslated program?

"Would you like to cancel this transaction?"

"OK" – "Cancel"

  Do you not object for the president to remain in power indefinitely?

  [ ] No,  I don't object
  [ ] Yes, I don't object

It used to be in the Air Force that full throttle was called "takeoff power". Then one day a jet was making a landing, and the copilot decided they needed to abort. The first thing you do on abort is go to full power, so he yelled "takeoff power". The pilot chopped the throttle, thinking he meant "take off power", causing an accident.

The offical phrase for full throttle was then changed to "full power" (or "maximum power", I forgot).

I’m going to use that as an example of why UX is hard: not only are people generally not paying attention, but sometimes they misfire even when they are.

    bool exit_handler(obj) {
        return confirm_exit(obj->description)
    }

"Would you like to format this disk?"

"Format" - "Don't"

"Would you like to cancel this transaction?"

"Cancel" - "Don't"

"Cancel?"

"OK" - "Cancel"

"0 is false and 1 is true, correct?"

"1" - "0"

"Switching the channel will switch to live mode and lose your rewind buffer. Do you want to switch to channels?"

[YES] [NO] [Cancel]

State of California used to allow 5 in healthcare reporting: male, female, indeterminate, unknown, and other.

The first two are largely self-explanatory, self-identification issues largely not considered. "Indeterminate" means that evidence is present but it's not possible to distinguish. "Unknown" means evidence isn't present (and hence it's not possible to make a determination. Example: unidentified human remains found and either grossly mutilated or partial to the point of not being able to determine sex. "Other" means that evidence is present, and it's possible to make a determination, but it doesn't fit any of the previous categories.

Those names don't exactly describe what the buttons do. Fortunately, though, someone at Microsoft noticed the problem and fixed it. So now the title bar reads, "Assertion Failed: Abort=Quit, Retry=Debug, Ignore=Continue"

"Application has detected and error!"

"OK" – "Cancel"

"OK" – "Cancel"

Easy, just replace would with wouldn't :)

No, you shouldn't.

Small surprise that once $14B/yr company just sold its remaining patent portfolio for $500M.

I remember the old DOS days when reading a floppy disk failed:

    Abort, Retry, Fail?

It's on Github: https://github.com/evanwon/WPFCustomMessageBox

There's more to be done, but it's been handy for me so far!

Or in ASCII art (spelling and punctuation as shown):

    +----------------------------------------------------+
    |                          [  Nah!  ]  [ Somewhat ]  |
    |                                                    |
    | Are you sure you want to permanently remove backup |
    | of files in Set "Desktop > Sneech"                 |
    |                                                    |
    | Thsi will completely remove                        |
    | any reference to these file.?                      |
    +----------------------------------------------------+

... just a thought, I'm no UX designer.

Ha, a terrible sentence. That's why I'm a back-end not a UX person :)

It's definitely a blurry line a lot of the time but having worked with a UX guy who was part of our design department, he definitely added a lot of value to the design process.

It went on to display a few common(windows 95 I think) dialogs that would leave most users confused. Then showed the Mac dialog in similar operations where it was very clear what the intended outcome of each button would be.

I'm currently writing my first "big" GUI for work where I serve as both the main programmer and the UX designer. Things such as button ambiguity are things that, until this point, had never crossed my mind.

OK/Cancel is better than Yes/No, but (as noted in the top answer) worse than stating specifically what clicking the button will do.

If I initiate a format on a drive volume I don't need a lecture on what a format does and what the risks are, I know them already, I just need a confirmation step.

When I was 12, I compressed drive C:\ in the hope more free space will be available. I think I'd have benefited from a lecture in the application.

If you wanted the software to warn you it was buggy before you turned it on, haha good luck.

This way the user can go as deep or shallow as they want without losing context.

If the required action takes more space than a button label, perhaps it's a sign that the UX should be reviewed.

I would also have the `yes`/`no` options apart and not how must people do it with them next to each other, avoids mistakes more.

Although verbs like Save along with icons like a floppy disk might increase familiarity, so graphics could be applied moderately.

I certianly do believe signs/symbols when known have a very intuative communication medium and once adopted and used the comfort value is as good and if not better than some words which are after all a collection of symbols in themselfs. Road sighs would be another area which has at least some universal symbols, maybe those would be more adoptable for a user interface.

Perish the thought that one day we have a computer that you set up and asks you how you the user would like certain common dialogues to be handeled and propergated that customised standard across all applications running upon them. I'm all for graphic symbols to indicate across languages the actions available as apposed to limiting to words alone, which are in themself (for English and many other languages) only a collection of 26 or so symbols combined in themself.

The example you give about the word Save with a icon with a floppy disc is very common in alot of applications, though I do wonder for a new user who is starting out with computers if they would even be able to identify with the image of a floppy disc, let alone know they ever existed and there use. So some symbols are, if not thought out limited in there use and some are timeless classics that still endure today, like some roadsigns. It is also worth noting that colours play a important part and with that also have limitations. If you saw a road stop sign in green instead of red you would think it was a go sign and not a stop one; So careful use is wise. With that the mix you say of text and symbols is perhaps not that bad an approach after all, albiet language biased it would still allow say a user of a mobile phone to navigate the menu's using the symbols to change the menu language back to say English with ease having been comfronted with russian text due to a child changing the settings or the like.