Location of "Confirm" green check button and "Cancel" red X

StephenG

I know this seems petty, but I have repeatedly been burned by accidentally mouse selecting the red X when I really wanted to select the green check box. The close proximity of the two makes it prone to selection mistakes. It is really frustrating to expend a lot of effort tweaking a sketch or changing settings in one of the more complex operation forms only to have all that effort go into the waste bin. 

I know this is "user error" and totally my fault. I am also aware of the other methods to accept the form (the <Enter> key, Right Mouse menu "Confirm"). But a minor change in the UI would eliminate most of the (my) mouse miss selection mistakes when ts comes to selecting the green check box or red X.

Here is the change: swap the Help ? with the green check box. 

    becomes  

I completely understand if Onshape doesn't want to consider making this change. I can image the hours of meetings and internal battles that were fought over the UI layout conventions.

Just wanted to pass on an end-user experience and wonder if others have experienced the same problem.

owen_sparks

I like where you're coming from but am not so keen on the proposal.

You'll note that OS introduced a light blue banner that briefly displays at the top of the screen when closing un-saved sketches that allows a user to "restore" the thing they just closed without saving, so it's clearly a concern that affects users today.

OS has blurred the lines on saving things.  As we don't save documents I think there is a subconscious thought that closing a pop-up window is pretty much the same as saving or accepting it, which of course is wrong, but deoes not stop me doing it!

My proposal would be to put the green "Accept" button in top right, and then have a red button with a worded label (like the Final button)  rather than an icon that says something like "Abort" for the abandon without saving option.

Just my thoughts,

Owen S.

StephenG

Thank you for pointing out the "Restore" from when canceling a sketch; that is where I experience the most pain from an accidentally Cancel.


Briefly is exactly 8 seconds. 

Why 8 seconds? I would have thought the ability to restore would persist until such time another modeling operation was selected, either a section of an new operation or something in the Feature(s) or Part(s) lists. Windowing/display changes wouldn't count as a modeling operation.

john_mcclary

Yea I never even noticed that pop up before, I wish I noticed that

Ty @owen_sparks

Yea this doesn't appear to follow Fitts's Law 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3gS9tjACwU

Having two polar opposite targets that close together is probably asking for it...

StephenG

I think it follows the "law of unintended consequences".

It would be interesting to know if the "restore pop-up" was added late to address this issue. If it was then it was a "band-aid" fix. I can understand if a product delivery commitment precluded changing the UI globally at the time, but clearly someone didn't think though this UI decision out well.

Hopefully, we'll see something done about it in a future update.

I am still trying to find the rationale for the 8 second rule; reminds me of the 5 second rule for picking up a dropped food item on the floor before it becomes contaminated and uneatable.