What should be the expected behavior on this user decision?

Question

Hi,

I have this application where the users can change text files and when they forget to save them, a little message pops up reminding them that the changes are not saved and asks them if they want to save the changes or not with two buttons "Yes" and "No". It also has a little checkbox that says "Disable this warning". And as the same says, if the user checks it, the message will never pop up again when the text files have unsaved changes.

A couple of questions:

1) Should the checkbox value (if they checked it) be remembered if the user only selects "Yes", only selects "No" or any of them?

2) Let's assume the user checked the checkbox so is not warned again about unsaved changes. What should be the expected behavior the next time the user forgets to save the changes?

Should I always assume a default action (yes: save changes, no: discard changes) after the user disabled the warning? If so, which action?

Or should I always save the changes or always discard the changes accordingly to the last user action right after the he disabled the warning?

Answer 1

Make the checkbox say '[ ] And always do this'.

Then it's clear that if they select 'No', and check it, it'll always choose 'No', and vice versa.

Answer 2

Since the checkbox says "Disable this warning", that's exactly what it should do. Don't be wishy-washy with what you're presenting to the users, just do what you say you're going to do!

If they forget to save their changes and they aren't warned, then they should not have checked the box. You are correct to always discard changes when the warning is disabled.

Answer 3

What you're doing is a common UI pattern but IMHO I think it's not a good user experience. Here is an alternative that I think is much better:

• New files save automatically every minute or so (vary this by how long it takes to save);
• It saves to a temporary file;
• If the user saves a file then give it a name and save it to that location;
• If the program crashes then the temp file is still there. The program should ask what you want to do with it when you start up;
• Closing the program should have a simple checkbox "Save Now?" (Yes/No). None of this "Are you sure you want to..." rubbish. Not saving should leave the file as a temp file;
• Getting rid of the temp file requires selecting a Discard action (with confirmation of "Discard Now?");
• Opening an existing file has the same save every minute functionality except that the saves are to a temporary file. Never modify the original unless the user explicitly saves the file, at which point copy the temp file over the original.
• Temporary files should be visible on a collapsible pane (or equivalent) including the date of the last edit and preferably a preview to remind the user what it is;
• There should be no option to disable this behaviour. It's not invasive or intrusive. As Joel says, every time you give a user an option you force them to make a decision. Options are way overused.

To specifically answer your question: you should never discard anything unless the user asks you to.

Controlling Your Environment Makes You Happy is a must-read on usability. Don't Make me Think! is too.

Answer 4

Or should I always save the changes or always discard the changes accordingly to the last user action right after the he disabled the warning?

I believe that should be the expected behavior. It would be nice if you had a hint on the screen of the default action that will take place.

I recommend the book About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design for some really good GUI designing ideas.

Answer 5

Better option is Auto save the document into drafts. It is possible to do that asynchronously.

Answer 6

I say, always automatically save. Forget the dialog. If they want to exit without saving, make that an explicit action on the file menu.

Think of how often you want to save versus those times you don't. The ratio is probably 100 to 1 or even 1000 to one. You want to inconvenience the user 999 times to protect them once?

Answer 7

1) You should also have a “Cancel” button that aborts the exiting, allowing the user to return to the document to see if s/he wants to save it or not.

2) “Disable this warning” is a little too geeky. Try, “Don’t show this warning again.” This tells the user that the warning will not be shown and implies no saving will happen in future cases. That’s probably not a good idea, and you should reconsider providing such a warning-suppression feature at all.

3) Far more often in this situation a user will want to save things than not, so that’s what your app really should do if there’s no warning. The checkbox in that case should be “Always automatically save changes when exiting.” This implies no warning will be shown in future cases.

4) If you do 3, you also need an alternative way for user to recover from totally botching up the file and not wanting to save. It could be an Undo dialog that allows the user to make big jumps backwards or maybe a menu item like “Go back to previous saved version.” Ideally, this feature should be available even after the user exits and re-opens the file.

5) If users can be made aware of 4), consider making 3) the default or sole option --don't have the warning at all.

All this assumes that periodic implicit saving is not an option.