Mode (user interface): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 04:29, 8 December 2023

Revision as of 13:10, 1 March 2024

Line 63:

Modes are intended to grab the user's full attention and to cause them to acknowledge the content present in them, in particular when critical confirmation from the user is required.<ref name="context">{{cite web|url=http://quince.infragistics.com/Patterns/Modal%20Panel.aspx#Context|title=Modal Panel - Context|website=Infragistics.com|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130506101851/http://quince.infragistics.com/Patterns/Modal%20Panel.aspx#Context|archive-date=2013-05-06}}</ref> This latter use is criticised as ineffective for its intended use (protection against errors in destructive actions) due to [[habituation]]. Actually making the action reversible (providing an "undo" option) is recommended instead.<ref>[[Aza Raskin]], A List Apart: [http://www.alistapart.com/articles/neveruseawarning Never Use a Warning When you Mean Undo]</ref> Though modes can be successful in particular usages to restrict dangerous or undesired operations, especially when the mode is actively maintained by a user as a ''quasimode''.

Modes are sometimes used to represent information pertinent to the task that doesn’tdo not fit well into the main visual flow.<ref name="context"/> Modes can also work as well-understood conventions, such as painting tools.<ref name="glossary"/>

Modal proponents{{Who|date=September 2010}} may argue that many common activities are modal and users adapt to them. An example of modal interaction is that of driving motor vehicles. A driver may be surprised when pressing the acceleration pedal does not accelerate the vehicle in the forward direction, most likely because the vehicle has been placed in an operating mode like park, neutral, or reverse. Modal interfaces require training and experience to avoid mode errors like these.