Dialogs and buttons¶

Clear title and button options¶

• Concise and descriptive dialog title: Add user
• Keep title of dialog generic and do not enter instance names as their length cannot be controlled, e.g. 'Delete building' instead of 'Delete Wittelsbacherplatz München'
• Avoid over-generic terms like ‘items’
• Option buttons should describe what will happen and relate to the dialog title: Cancel, Add
• Forms: When asking for user input using a dialog and there is no clear action verb in the title, provide Cancel and Save as buttons
• One button only reflects one action
• Users should be able to understand the choices based on the title and button text alone
• Avoid using ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ as buttons, but instead use suitable verbs to make the action directly understandable
• Only use ‘OK’ as an option if you cannot find an appropriate verb

Primary and secondary actions¶

• Primary on the right, secondary left (Cancel, OK) not (OK, Cancel)
• Primary actions can either be positive (Send, Save) or negative (Delete)

Clear content¶

• In confirmation dialogs, formulate a question that is aimed at the primary action and ideally contains the verb of the primary button
• Keep content as concise and descriptive as possible
• Avoid to repeat the title
• Only include disclaimers if they are not implicitly part of the main content and if the amount of work required to recreate the current situation is high
• Check whether a disclaimer can be prevented by a different interaction
• Only use ‘this action’ in disclaimers

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