About Face 2.0(c) The Essentials of Interaction Design

In the last chapter, we discussed the larger design issues concerning dialog boxes. In this chapter, we zoom in closer to examine the way well-behaved dialogs should act. Even an appropriate dialog box can exhibit behavior that is unexpected or irritating. By attending to the details, we can change them from rude interrupters to polite and helpful attendants.

Politeness as a Dialog Virtue

As you recall, we divided dialog boxes into four types: property, function, bulletin, and process. One of the most important differences among these types is the way they are summoned. The first two are shown only at the user's explicit request, whereas the latter two are unilaterally issued by the program. This suggests a difference in tone and presentation. If you summon a servant, you expect him to step smartly into the room and plainly and immediately offer his services. On the other hand, when he wants to ask you for a raise, you want him to wait obsequiously until you are in a pleasant mood before interrupting your reverie to impose his own needs. In this spirit, bulletin and process dialogs should show much more deference than property or function dialogs. Unfortunately, the opposite is usually true.

A user-requested dialog may be large and place itself front-and-center on the screen. No unrequested dialog should take such liberties—unless there is a clear and present danger to the user. An unrequested dialog should be smaller, more compact in its use of space, and should appear off to one side of the screen so as not to obstruct the user's view of things.