User interface design. Enable the Cancel button or not?

Question

We are developing a user interface for a new line of business applications. We have no real limitations and we are free to develop the user interface as we see fit. The user interface will be implemented in WPF and is intended for users of Windows 7, Vista and XP Pro.

Many dialog boxes contain the OK and Cancel buttons in the lower right corner. Do you think you need to have this Cancel button or enough red X in the upper right corner? We discuss this as we notice more user interfaces that don't have cancel buttons, only red X.

Answer 1

Not only should you add it, but also make sure that the ESC is mapped to it.

Answer 2

Present two designs to the client - one with the Cancel button and the other without. See what their thoughts are.

It’s better to imagine them as partially working prototypes and watch them when they use dialogs. If you ask them to complete a set of tasks and see if they have problems trying to cancel the operation.

Having said that, I prefer to turn on the Cancel button for reasons others have talked about:

• Availability (especially since Esc must be matched with it).
• Convention (users expect it).

Answer 3

Turn on the Cancel button. Red X is VERY hard to complete tab.;)

Answer 4

Turn it on. This is very common in other user interfaces. Give the user a choice which to use; making them for them, they can annoy your interface.

Answer 5

Users are used to standard GUI layouts - otherwise they get confused. They also have different ways to use the standard interface. Some people use only X, some use only Cancel. People usually ignore the one that they do not use, but confuse if they are not. So be safe and keep them both - in any case, there should only be a single-line function for Cancek.

Answer 6

Turn it on!

Answer 7

From the point of view of the user interface, not including the cancel button, problems may arise with some users, since they have no choice, which is certainly not the case. Imagine the following simple decision scenario:

Note: all files in the selected folder will be deleted. This action cannot be undone. Are you sure you want to continue?

How stupid would the interface be if the only option was Ok? In addition, as noted above, on many platforms, the Escape key is displayed on Cancel. It is also probably worth setting the default button so that pressing the Enter / Space key does not perform an unintended action that cannot be undone.

Answer 8

+1 by turning it on. If you don’t turn it on now, and then you will need several different functions for “Cancel to close” later, your users will already be used to automatically close.

Answer 9

Just as we have the “ESC” button on the keyboard, we need to “Cancel” in the dialogs.

Convenience issue :-)

Answer 10

Turn it on. And please also make sure that you press the Escape key to do the same as the Cancel button.

Also, simply because you are developing from scratch, please do not throw away all conventions. Take a look at the MSFT UX Rules for dialog boxes.

Answer 11

The red button is valid for "Close", not "Cancel". Cancel the cancellation of an ongoing task. Use the close button instead. And yes, turn on “Close” if there is a reason people click on it. The red button is pretty hard to click when you really want to close something quickly.

Answer 12

If you have such freedom, consider eliminating the dialog boxes from your application completely, especially with the typical "OK | CANCEL" paradigm. Dialogs disrupt the flow of actions and should usually be used only for things that absolutely require the program to interrupt the user.

You will notice how destructive they are in the web environment - for example, Qaru uses them only when they should be able to OVERRIDE your action, for example, when you switch from an unconfirmed answer.