For performance reasons, we almost always settled on OK on the left, Cancel on the right in web forms. It sped up completion of the form (in tests) by being the first button you wind up on when you tab out of the last field (saves a tab), and was more obviously the button that would respond when you pressed "enter" on the keyboard within the form (this last is subjective, but someone mentioned it in a test, and it kind of makes sense).
Another tangential argument you could make is: If the buttons were Yes and No, would you reverse them? Make the most popular path the easiest to follow. If you want people to hit Cancel if there is some risk in hitting Ok, then you might run a study with Cancel/OK to make sure it doesn't confuse anyone. - Bryan http://www.bryanminihan.com -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Juan Ruiz Sent: Monday, November 19, 2007 7:58 PM To: Prasad Perera; IxDA Discuss Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] OK/Cancel [wrong heading - Jaiku ] Prasad, This has been a conversation that has been posted in the IxDA and SIGLIA mailing lists many times, and it has come to this: "it depends". I am in favor of the action button [ok] to be on the left, with the condition that the form is a single page and the action will be carried out immediately. I would like to see if somebody has run usability tests or research to define best practices for this argument. -Juan -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Prasad Perera Sent: Tuesday, 20 November 2007 11:25 AM To: IxDA Discuss Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Jaiku Hi All, Has anyone done extensive user testing for placement of OK, CANCEL buttons? Should OK be on left and CANCEL on right? I have seen many theories to how it should be but didn't come across any results of an actual user testing on this subject. If anyone has information about this, please let me know. Thanks Prasad Perera User Experience Architect ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
