Comment by basch | Hacker News Reader

Comment by basch | Hacker News Reader

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I honestly consider this one of the most important computer skills, and its something you can really only get by understanding the different layers (is my prompt the os, software, which framework was it written in, a browser prompt, a website prompt, etc) and that is: what happens when i click [ok] [cancel] [x] (blankspace) etc. Its probably one of the most inconsistent experiences on a computer. One popups Ok is anothers x is anothers cancel.

Ive seen most prompts before. I know what pressing cancel or ok on each one does without thinking. And if I dont know what it does, I have to pause and figure out the consequence of each button.

And when I watch other people use computers, they will close things, and I ask them "what was that" they often respond "I dont know, I didnt ask for it, so I closed it." There seems to be a persuasive misunderstandig that dismissing a prompt will leave everything in its previous state, and that it cant make any changes.

> "what was that" they often respond "I dont know, I didnt ask for it, so I closed it"

To me there's nothing wrong with that attitude though. One of the best lessons you can teach someone when they're browsing the internet is;

If some website is asking for permission to do something or wants you to download something that you didn't ask for. Then DON'T do it.

Not at all. Read and understand what you are clicking. there are popups in windows (and 3rd party software) all the time, and if you click x, things stop working.

thinks akin to "by closing this box or clicking ok, you are enabling autosave."

It's the app the cried wolf...

If the website or application is popping up constant unimportant dialogs, then the user is trained to quickly dismiss them...

which isnt the same advice as "click without reading what you clicked"

And if you don't understand what the box is trying to communicate, and aren't sure what will happen when you click [OK], [Cancel] or [x]?

I'm always amazed at peoples' ability to observe users, and when user behaviour doesn't match up with the intended design, think "Hmm... the users have a pervasive misunderstanding. They need to be educated to understand the design."

Could it be that the model you describe doesn't fit the mental model of a typical human very well? Could the cause of this "pervasive misunderstanding" be bad design, rather than dumb users?

Its not about education. Its about a mindset. Trying to understand the consequence of your action before you click. Reading what a box says before dismissing it.

Read your prompts before closing them isnt the same as "the users have a pervasive misunderstanding." Its usually panic. Its "im not a computer person so Im not even going to try reading this."

Have you ever had the conversation:

"This came up on my pc, what do I do"

"What does it say"

"Oh"

I am all for simple-to-understand user experiences, but at some point the user has to make some effort if they want to do anything even mildly complex.

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