Dialog boxes and security - Comments

Comment by Seth on "Dialog boxes and security"

Seth — Wed, 28 Jan 2004 09:10:52 GMT

>In short, from a user perspective, dialog boxes are impediments >to productivity which provide no information.

You've totally nailed it w/that description...

Two folks I am well-acquainted with _insist_ on just clicking "OK" when confronted by dialog boxes, despite my warnings/cajolings/etc to the contrary that their computers might be trying to tell them something.

Obviously, they are not 'techies' by any stretch of the imagination. Nonetheless, they are computer users (and consumers) and one hopes the wizards of Windows keep even these humble folks in mind.

(One of them even had the temerity to say they had no particular impetus to change, because, in effect, they'd done it in the past with no discernable issue resulting....as long as email and websurfing keep working, people seem to think their computers are fine....)

Comment by Mike on "Dialog boxes and security"

Mike — Wed, 28 Jan 2004 09:23:02 GMT

Well, Eric's the guy who nailed it, but I take your point. :-)

Comment by Eric Lippert on "Dialog boxes and security"

Eric Lippert — Wed, 28 Jan 2004 16:10:57 GMT

Users like that are the rule, not the exception. You should see some of the tape we have of ordinary users in the usability labs. Scary!

There's a lot more to say on the subject of dialog boxes, both from the general perspective of usability and the specific details of how to write a good security dialog (ie, don't, but if you must, do it right.) I'll blog more on it later.

Comment by Eric Lippert on "Dialog boxes and security"

Eric Lippert — Wed, 28 Jan 2004 16:29:58 GMT

> I find the third point particularly interesting

You're not alone. You could write for Star Trek!

http://talk.trekweb.com/articles/2001/10/09/1002677233.html

"I was the guy at Star Trek who, when I was writing their really technical scenes, filled in a lot of it with just blanks. It was like "Mr. La Forge, tech the tech 15 percent." And Geordi would say, "Captain the tech is overloading." "Well, tech the tech." "Captain, we can't tech the tech anymore or the warp drive will overload." I hated that stuff.