Command buttons order, Windows CRUD UI

Question

Hello folks, I've found many answers, here or inside MS' UI guidelines, regarding button positioning, but none about how to position (in which order) buttons when you have three actions to do, New, Edit and Delete. I have a simple UI, in the upper part I placed a grid listing some data. Beneath, these three buttons. Following what I see around, I have to place them in this order:

 New - Edit - Delete

But it seems to me that the delete button is more prevalent and easier to reach and click than the others (it falls on the lower-right corner of my window).

Any suggestion?

Answer 1

Column layouts are always good for these kind of buttons, as one has to move the cursor into the button area, which is horizontally slight and therefore less likely to be accidentally clicked. Also it provides a perceived division from the main GUI widgets, instead of spanning their length, which tends to create less of a perceived division in the user's mind.

But if you do not wish to change the overall layout, I would say that your current layout is good. Maybe add a delete confirmation box if one is not already present.

Answer 2

I think the order you cite (New - Edit - Delete) is most common because you would logically tab order from left to right when using the keyboard. New would arguably be the most used button (possibly edit depending on the application, but rarely delete) and therefore you wold want the fewest tabs to get to the New button.