User Interface Design

Dr. Dalbey's Pet Peeves


Here are some common mistakes in user interface design that particular annoy Dr. Dalbey
 

The perplexing confirmation message

I hate confirmation messages like this:

It doesn't tell me what is about to be deleted and it doesn't tell what are the implications or consequences of deleting.  So how am I supposed to know if I should proceed or not?

Better version 1:  "Are you sure you want to delete the appointment 'Lunch with Jeff.'  If you do you will not receive a reminder. This action can not be undone."

Better version 2: Have a third button "Tell me more" which has a complete explanation of what is about to happen and describes the options available to the user.
 

The unhelpful error message

Example 1:
This error message is completely useless:

"Invalid date format.  Please enter the date in a valid format."

Why is this stupid? Because if I knew what a valid date format was I would have entered that way in the first place. The fact that I got this error means I obviously don't know what a valid format is.  So this error message does nothing to help me correct the problem.  Good error messages always suggest what corrective action is necessary.

Better: "The date you entered "10/25/02" is not valid.  Please specify the year as a four-digit year between 1980 and 2099, e.g. 2002.


Example 2:  (see photo) phone error msg
Assuming I happen to remember that the "SIM card" is the tiny piece of plastic the salesperson inserted into the back of the phone when I purchased it, "registration failed" is meaningless to 99% of users. 
  Importantly, it gives me no clue about how to fix the problem, even though there is clearly more room on the screen for an explanation.  Is the card not plugged in? Is the phone not finding an expected card? Does the card not match the software version? Is there a problem with the phone service? 












Confusing user registration dialog

I'm about to register for some web-based service and a dialog prompts me with "Enter username."  This is very confusing to me because I haven't signed up yet so I don't know what my username is.  It should say "Please choose a username you would like to register" or some similar explanatory prompt.  And there should always be an option to ask for clarification if I still don't understand.


Identical Save and Restore dialogs

If you were designing the control panel for a nuclear reactor would you place the button that lifts the dampening rods out of the reactor right next to the button that lowers the rods down into the reactor?  I hope not.  These are VERY different functions so the activating buttons should be very far apart and look very different. 
The same with Save and Restore dialogs.  They do entirely opposite things so they should look very different from each other.  I hate when the Save and Restore functions in a program use exactly the same file chooser dialog distinguished only by a minor change in the title bar.  In a rush I restore a bad copy into my current document and lose all my work.

Not following standard conventions

What's wrong with the buttons in this screen?


Insufficient Feedback
In early 2011 I requested an account history from my online bank starting in Jan 09. The results began in FEB 09.
account history display
Did the computer make a mistake?  Why isn't January included?  The Statement period says 01JAN09.
When I called the bank, the agent didn't know what was happening either.  He had to contact the internal IT department. It turns out the bank records only go back as far as February 09 (Why only 2 years of history? It's not like disk storage is expensive.)  But the search query didn't tell me that, the output doesn't indicate that, and in fact there's no place on the site to find out how far back the records go!   How hard would be to include a small popup that says "our records only go back to Feb 09 so we can't display all the statements in your requested date range."?

Misleading Description What do you suspect is the purpose of this form?

 
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