Re: Command buttons

Thanks to all for your responses.  I could have done a better job of
describing the situation, but your comments were extremely help.

The vertical bar is for a new business workflow application.  

Here is the order and the functionality of the buttons.  Longer labels
unfortunately are not an option.

Submit (saves and goes to the next stage)
Save (saves and stays open)
Close (saves and closes)

Cancel (closes and data for that session is not saved)

Delete (deletes the requests all together)



Here are summaries of responses:

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======================================

>It is a good practive to keep your "Postive" command buttons ( eg:- 
>Save,
>Submit...) aligned to the left and "Negative" command buttons (eg:-
Cancel,
>Delete...) aligned to the right.

Do you have any studies to support this? We conducted a small user study
and found the opposite. I suspect this is a technology driven
standard...


Dan Chamberlain
Dominion Resources
EWG.UXE
701 East Cary Street
Richmond, Virginia 23219
804.771.4629
8.736.4629

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I'll bite, Janis :)  (From Susan Price)

I like the order you have them in. I presume the desired/most positive
action is submit, followed by the nondestructive Save, Save/Exit and
Cancel, then Delete, finally Close.

Perhaps you could use vertical space or other differences to suggest
relationships or clarify the actions?

SUBMIT

Save
Save & Exit

Cancel

DELETE

Close

I'm not a big fan of the label "Submit" depending on the users, though
this sounds like an expert interface, so probably appropriate. I cherish
a t-shirt a friend made for an early web conference that has red
gothic-looking "Webmistress" type, beneath which is a Mac button
(complete with Chicago font) saying "Submit Now."

=====================================================================
It is a good practive to keep your "Postive" command buttons ( eg:-
Save,
Submit...) aligned to the left and "Negative" command buttons (eg:-
Cancel,
Delete...) aligned to the right.

This is with regard to the fact that human eyes scan from left to right
and top to bottom. Also it is a fact that the frequency of "User"
clicking positive buttons are more than clicking the negative buttons.
So a grouping of buttons attend to that purpose.

Regards
Harikrishna VP
User Experience Designer,
Usability Engineering Group,
IBS, Technopark,
Trivandrum,
India.
========================================================================
submit
cancel
<hr>
save
delete
<hr>
close

1) save/exit is a complicated command, not worth the cognitive
realestate
2) do you really need a close?  isn't there something more intuitive
already in place for closing a form, browser window, etc? 
3) Save and Delete share similarities, as do Submit and Cancel, but
should be displayed as secondary items. 

left nav or bottom of form: Submit/Cancel
top nav or top of box: save
display delete as an option only when editing a previously saved
document. 
additionally, you may want to consider auto-saving as well.

The focus should be on the user's task, which i assume to be content
addition.  Displaying Submit (and cancel) prominently will register
immediately and satisfice most users.  The user will be more likely to
take the time to hunt around for a save button in its secondary location
because the user will already be invested in the form.  The user will
have already spent time completing the form, and thus, won't mind the
extra few seconds it takes to locate the save button. 

- Kev
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==========
Hello,
I think the sequence of the items should account for the frequency of
use. As there is no context for the functions being performed on the
page I can only guess at the data posting and work flow associated with
using this application. 
 
The earlier comment about separating positive and negative commands has
merit. One wants to ensure commands such as delete, cancel or close are
not clicked by mistake. Do you have influence over the layout so that
you can add some space between groups of commands? 
 
The labels themselves (out of context) are very similar and potentially
confusing (e.g., save, submit, and save/exit). If "save" does not post
the data, perhaps Save for Later or Save As Draft is clearer for the
user. Save versus Save/Exit appears to be a subtle variation. Delete and
Close appear to be nuiances related to what appears on the screen. 
 
So making many assumptions, these appear to be the main commands:
Submit
Save as Draft
Cancel
Exit Program
 
Hope that helps.
Susan Miller
Senior Information Architect
Resource Interactive
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========
i Janis--wow, six buttons--and I'm not sure what each of them does?  
I'd wager that this is more of a problem for you than the order.

- What's the difference between Submit, Save, and Save/Exit?
- What's the difference between Cancel, Close, and Delete?
- Does every button here affect the entire form or do some relate to
particular fields or data (Delete)?
- What is the main action you want your users to do here?

I'd try to narrow down to no more than two buttons--save and cancel-- or
possibly a third. Ask yourself if you're sure you even need a Cancel
button. Position the most likely/most desired function most
prominently--depending on your visual design, that might be left, right,
or top of the list.

Hope this helps,

Lee Cline
Yahoo!
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==
I have nearly endless thoughts for you depending on the context of usage
of this "sidebar" and who your target users are. 

Since I don't know your users I'd like to offer you the thought that
there are too many choices here that *could* more or less do the same
thing depending on what you're trying to achieve. If these are
applicable to some settings screen or an "editor" that is a loop
independent of a necessitated workflow, why not consider only using "OK"
and "Cancel"? OK exits and saves. Cancel exits without saving. Both
"close" i.e. exit. Saving and closing = a "submit". Closing w/o saving =
a "delete". I've never witnessed a web user in u-testing utilize the
"clear" button commonly placed adjacent to a "submit" button when they
can merely "clear" by closing the browser window using the "X" at the
upper right that closes all windows on their system or use the "back"
button.

Less is more. Less choices = less confusion. Since you don't have
several sentences describing to users the intricacies and differences of
the actions associated with the labels on your list, how could users be
aware of them from a single word? I doubt you want your users spending
several minutes pondering the detail differences of these labels.
Pondering for several minutes is not something users tend to appreciate
or do unless they are extremely motivated to do so (i.e. they have no
other options to accomplish their task easily available to them).

Regards,

Damian Couch
Usability Engineer
Eastman Kodak Company 



 

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