Editing Alert dialog box (section)

== Criticism ==

Modal alert dialogs are prone to produce [[mode error]]s due to their unrequested nature. A study to appear at the ''Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society'' showed that when a user dialog appears, the primary goal of users is typically to get rid of them as soon as possible<ref>[https://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080923-study-confirms-users-are-idiots.html Fake popup study sadly confirms most users are idiots] Ars Technica, 23 September 2008</ref> even without any analysis of the causes for the dialog appearance. When asked, users dismissed any dialog box as a distraction from their assigned task.

This is explained by a common complaint about the wording of the message in the alert box, which is often incomprehensible to the user. In applications without proper [[user-centered design]], the developers decide the text of the message, including terms and concepts from the [[mental model]] of the programmer, not of the user's view of the world. Since the dialog doesn't work to accomplish the user needs, the common reaction will be to dismiss the alert without further consideration.<ref>Raymond Chen, The Old New Thing: [https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20030901-00/?p=42723 The default answer to every dialog box is "Cancel"]</ref>

Dangerous actions should be undoable wherever possible; a modal dialog that appears unexpectedly or which is dismissed by [[habituation]] will not protect from the dangerous action.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Raskin |first=Jef |title=The Humane Interface |publisher=Addison Wesley |year=2000 |isbn=0-201-37937-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/humaneinterfacen00rask }}</ref> This problem can be avoided by providing an [[undo]] action instead of a warning,<ref>[[Aza Raskin]], A List Apart: [http://www.alistapart.com/articles/neveruseawarning Never Use a Warning When you Mean Undo]</ref> or showing the warning in an [[infobar]] instead of a dialog.

Another recognized problem is that, as a [[modal window]], the dialog blocks all [[workflow]] in the program until it is closed. Users may not recognize that the dialog requires their attention, leading to confusion about the main window being non-responsive, or causing loss of the user's data input. This often happens in data entry forms after an error alert produced by invalid data. The preferred design include changing a visual aspect of the input element to reflect an invalid entry (such as applying a red border), or adding a character such as an [[asterisk]] next to the input element that needs to be corrected.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cooper |first=Alan |title=About Face 2.0: The Essentials of Interaction Design |publisher=Wiley |date=17 March 2003 |isbn=0-7645-2641-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/aboutface20essen0000coop }}</ref>