Editing Alert dialog box (section)

== Usage ==

Alerts have several typical uses:<ref>[http://java.sun.com/products/jlf/ed2/book/HIG.Dialogs5.html Java Look and Feel Design Guidelines, second edition.]</ref>

* Error: informs the user than an operation could not continue or complete due to some insurmountable error.
* [[Confirmation dialog box|Warning]]: alerts that the current course of action could be in some way dangerous or detrimental, often offering the option of not proceeding.
* Info: presents a general notification about a recent event.
* Question: elicits some kind of response from the user, required to complete the current process.
 
''Warning'' and ''question'' alerts typically offer two opposite options to close the dialog ("Allow/Deny", "OK/Cancel", "Yes/No") with the implicit assumption that one will proceed with the paused process that triggered the dialog, and the other one will interrupt the process without action.  A good practice in [[interface design]], often included in [[human interface guidelines]], is to label each option with the precise effect that it will have on the process (for example, "Save/Don't save"  in a dialog triggered while editing a document with unsaved changes).

The primary reason for using an alert dialogue instead of communicating via the main program window is [[Modality (human–computer interaction)|modality]]. A typical online form is non-modal. They present to a user many actions that can be performed in any sequence. By contrast an alert dialogue creates a modal state that isolates a particular element of the form and requires a user to address it before proceeding to the next step.

The utility of the alert dialogue is increasing with mobile device penetration, because:
* modal alerts are part of the native functionality of a mobile device, so can be deployed consistently across the device ecosystem as opposed to visual styling techniques that are prone to cross-platform inconsistency
* smaller viewports (screens) make it more difficult to review the main program window looking for errors/information
* smaller viewports have acclimatized users to interacting with a sequence of small screens each with a define action, rather than viewing all contextual info at once on a big screen