Eliminate "Are You Sure?" Dialog When Removing Structures

[Darren]

I can't count the number of times I've seen this dialog :

Of course I want to continue, that's why I right-clicked the structure and chose Remove [Structure]!  This dialog must be a holdover from pre-Undo days.  Do we pop-up a dialog when you select your whole diagram and press <Delete>?  What about when you press Ctrl-B?  These actions have the potential to remove just as much diagram content as Remove [Structure].

Please get rid of this dialog, and just let us Undo the operation if we need to, just like we do all the other potentially destructive diagram edit operations.

[JackDunaway]

Predicated upon the completion of a more robust Undo facility: yes!

[Darin.K]

In a narrow sense, I like this.  It is annoying, adds a click, and of course key focus is always on the wrong choice (Cancel).  In the bigger picture I like the 'Don't show this warning again' checkbox as described here, and would like it to be a feature on most, if not all, warnings such as this one. 

[donkdonk]

At least change key focus to ok.

[RavensFan]

You can't change the key focus to ok.  That defeats the whole purpose of having the dialog to begin with.  What's the point of having an "Are you sure?" dialog to give you a chance to back out of a mistake if an unintentional button click or key press allows the "dangerous" action to continue?

[Darin.K]

I am already in favor of elimination for this particular warning, but if for some reason NI decides to keep it, and not give me a checkbox, then I would argue that it is perfectly reasonable to move the focus to 'ok' and that the current behavior is outside the norm of Windows UI guidelines.

1)  Notice the system booleans come with default key mappings: enter for OK, escape for Cancel, this is normal and recommended behavior.  When I see this warning, I expect enter to be ok.

2)  Last I looked (and I don't check often), the Windows recommendation is that the 'Default' action for a dialog be mapped to the Enter button.  99 times out of 100 when I hit this dialog it is by intention, and therefore I expect enter to the necessary keystroke.

Deviations from normal UI behavior are appropriate for dangerous actions resulting in sure data loss, this action is easily undoable and hardly warrants a warning dialog at all (kudos), much less extra mouse movements or keypresses.   You can save a VI and wipeout your Undo buffer without a peep, this seems even more benign.

I prefer my warnings to be: used sparingly, easily dismissed, and configurable whether or not to be shown again.  This one seems to struggle on all counts.

[AristosQueue (NI)]

> 2)  Last I looked (and I don't check often), the Windows recommendation is

> that the 'Default' action for a dialog be mapped to the Enter button.  99 times

> out of 100 when I hit this dialog it is by intention, and therefore I expect enter

> to the necessary keystroke.

Microsoft dialog design guidelines do mention the Enter key. They say, "When a dialog box opens, the OK button typically has input focus." Typically, but not always, but they do not explain what scenarios it is acceptable not to do so.

Microsoft dialog UI guidelines do not mention the Enter key behavior at all, but if you haven't ever read these, it is really useful to do so if you build a lot of user interfaces.

Microsoft dialgo concepts do not mention the Enter key.

I could not find anything in current MSDN that speaks to when it is acceptable to leave the Enter key binding off. My memory is that the times you do this is exactly when you are presenting an "Are You Sure" dialog for a potentially destructive task, where the goal is to force the user's brain to engage before they commit the change by making them do something out of their normal habits. Searching the wider WWW, I found a few debates about the effectiveness of this, but nothing conclusive or authoritative.

[JackDunaway]

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@aq wrote:

Microsoft dialog UI guidelines do not mention the Enter key behavior at all, but if you haven't ever read these, it is really useful to do so if you build a lot of user interfaces.

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Great link!

[Ray.R]

Kudos.

Get rid of it..  Or alternatively, a checkbox in the Options

[Ray.R]

I couldn't type anymore...  How strange..  😞

Get rid of it..  Or alternatively, a checkbox in the Tools>Options menu where we could select to never see the annoying popup message.

The key focus on OK would be almost as annoying as the popup message in the first place.  With so many popups from so many applications, power users get as many annoying/useless popup messages as spam messages..  (OK a slight exaggeration, but it was to get the point accross).

[Manzolli]

If it is not necessary anymore, it should be removed. Until version 4 this message was necessary, because the undo feature only appeared on version 5.

I think it should be removed. If it is deleted by mistake, just undo it! (no "reverseNike" emoticon here )