{"id":42723,"date":"2003-09-01T11:06:00","date_gmt":"2003-09-01T11:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.msdn.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/2003\/09\/01\/the-default-answer-to-every-dialog-box-is-cancel\/"},"modified":"2003-09-01T11:06:00","modified_gmt":"2003-09-01T11:06:00","slug":"the-default-answer-to-every-dialog-box-is-cancel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/20030901-00\/?p=42723","title":{"rendered":"The default answer to every dialog box is "Cancel""},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The problem with displaying UI is that people will take every opportunity to ignore it. This story of how people deal with virus warning dialogs<\/a> (via Don Browning<\/a>) is a template for how users treat any unexpected dialog: They try to get rid of it. <\/p>\n

We see this time and time again. If you are trying to accomplish task A, and in the process of doing it, an unexpected dialog box B appears, you aren’t going to stop and read and consider B carefully. You’re going to try to find the quickest path to getting rid of dialog B. For most people, this means minimizing it or clicking “Cancel” or just plain ignoring it. <\/p>\n

This manifests itself in many ways, but the basic idea is, “That dialog box is scary. I’m afraid to answer the question because I might answer it incorrectly and lose all my data. So I’ll try to find a way to get rid of it as quickly as possible.” <\/p>\n

Here are some specific examples, taken from real customers: <\/p>\n