Dialog box outsourcing.
October 17th, 2007 by xamountA month or so ago, one of our formidable beta testers (and community moderator) alerted us to the fact that a certain dialog box was confusing:
“Let me walk you through my train of thought. The Dialogue is telling me that all Downloaded games are going to be deleted, then it asks me if I’m sure I want to do that, but it gives me the option of Cancel and “Delete Games only” So why is it warning me that everything will be deleted instead of asking me which option I want?” — tsrblke2
Looking at it with fresh eyes, we conceded that it was indeed a mixed-up piece of messaging, asking “The dialog is trying to warn you of the hugeness of what you’re about to do AND offer you a couple of saves. Would modifying the final question (and the ‘are you sure?’ header) to something non-question-y like ‘Please select an option’ help?”
In jumped another one of our beta testers, a smart fellow named amiantos, with the following:
Aside from overexplaining the options, and making the current dialog more confusing, the only way to fix it would be to re-do the whole thing. I should draw this out. — amiantos
And draw it out he did:
“Well, shoot. There it is,” we thought. Why mess with someone’s spot-on design? So we didn’t touch it. Now, in version 3.1, when you attempt to delete any games that have local data attached to them, you’ll see a dialog that looks ever so suspiciously like the very dialog that our talented beta tester designed:
Ahh… that was easy. Thanks, guys!
October 17th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
I feel like a celebrity! I’M A STAR! WHERE IS MY NAME IN LIGHTS? THEY SHOULD BE BLUE LIGHTS!
… I just hope I get to beta-test into the future.
October 17th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Very nice Brad. It’s good to know we’ve got people like you testing to make Gametap better for all the rest of us!
October 17th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
Get them to hire you as a professional “Dialog Boxer.” or something…
October 17th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
Lord knows they won’t hire me as a professional spell checker. Perhaps I can be professional complainer
October 17th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
I plan on filing a complaint if that happens.
Anyway, it’s great that the GameTap team really listens to their customers and takes their suggestions to heart. That’s been the biggest thing I’ve been impressed with about this service, especially compared to the various MMOG teams that keep themselves at ten-meter-cattleprod length from their customers.
October 18th, 2007 at 3:03 am
The topic Are You Sure? is still somewhat empy in information value. I’d suggest you have a look at Apple HIG to find out how to design effective dialogs.
October 18th, 2007 at 6:36 am
Thanks, Pete but… are you sure?
Seriously though, if you’re arguing against the contextual usage of “are you sure?” in an alert box, you’ve no doubt fired off many similar messages to the OS X interface group. If you’re arguing against the alert “topic” title itself (messaging space no longer afforded by the HIG), fair enough — we’ve got our own G for the non-file-level GameTap OS. What would you title the dialog?
October 24th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
I’m Going back to my original statement on this one. Call it something like “Delete Game Options” or something descriptive, but not a question.