bug#12635: A usability issue with the save dialog box

bug#12635: A usability issue with the save dialog box

[Alex Hanif]

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Hi,
I am a usability designer based in Stockholm and I would like to suggest a
few improvements to the Emacs save dialog. I have motivated my suggestion
and put up an image of the suggested solution on my blog:
http://user.wordpress.com/2012/10/13/emacs-has-a-confusing-save-dialogue-box/

Please let me know if I can help improve Emacs.
Thank you,
+Alex

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bug#12635: A usability issue with the save dialog box

[Leo]

On 2012-10-13 16:02 +0800, Alex Hanif wrote:
> I am a usability designer based in Stockholm and I would like to
> suggest a few improvements to the Emacs save dialog. I have motivated
> my suggestion and put up an image of the suggested solution on my
> blog: 
> http://user.wordpress.com/2012/10/13/emacs-has-a-confusing-save-dialogue-
> box/  Please let me know if I can help improve Emacs.

Yep, that is probably the worst design on earth and fortunately most
people don't use it.

Leo

bug#12635: A usability issue with the save dialog box

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Alex Hanif <hanifbbz@gmail.com>
> Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2012 10:02:08 +0200
> 
> I am a usability designer based in Stockholm and I would like to suggest a
> few improvements to the Emacs save dialog. I have motivated my suggestion
> and put up an image of the suggested solution on my blog:
> http://user.wordpress.com/2012/10/13/emacs-has-a-confusing-save-dialogue-box/
> 
> Please let me know if I can help improve Emacs.

Thanks, but IMO your suggested dialog goes too far in the other
direction: it removes useful options.

It is possible that the options to view the file's buffer and to
review the changes should be renamed, e.g.  "Do not save and show the
changes" or some such, or maybe the layout should be changed.  But
removing the options because "users can only cope with 2 at most" is
not the best idea.

Likewise with "Save This But No More" and "No To All" and "Save All
Buffers" (which perhaps should be relabeled "Yes To All").  These are
useful when saving several files, and should appear then.

Can you suggest a better design that leaves the options available?

TIA

bug#12635: A usability issue with the save dialog box

[Andreas Schwab]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

> Likewise with "Save This But No More" and "No To All" and "Save All
> Buffers" (which perhaps should be relabeled "Yes To All").

The latter two should probably be replaced by a check box "use this
answer for subsequent questions".

Andreas.

-- 
Andreas Schwab, schwab@linux-m68k.org
GPG Key fingerprint = 58CA 54C7 6D53 942B 1756  01D3 44D5 214B 8276 4ED5
"And now for something completely different."

bug#12635: A usability issue with the save dialog box

[Juri Linkov]

> Please let me know if I can help improve Emacs.

The most user-friendly UI would tell the user what pressing the button
will do exactly.  So instead of buttons "Yes"/"No", it would display
more explicit text in buttons: "Save"/"Don't save" or "Save"/"Discard".

OTOH, Emacs is special in this regard that actions in the dialog box
have their counterparts in the non-GUI version where "y" and "n" are keys
to save or skip the buffer.  With the goal to maintain compatibility
between these two versions, the GUI version could provide accelerator keys
in the button text like "_Y_es" and "_N_o".

But in case when these versions will diverge from each other,
and also for the final question

  Modified buffers exist; exit anyway?

still more explicit "Yes, discard changes"/"No, cancel" or
"Yes, close without saving"/"No, cancel" would be better.

"Don't quit" to cancel the dialog is very necessary, yes,
but a link in a dialog box a quite non-standard element.
Much simpler would be to just add the button "Cancel".

Removing the option "View This Buffer" could be accompanied with
displaying the buffer in question unconditionally (this suggestion
pertains to the non-GUI version as well).

Regarding the multi-file operation, some applications solve this problem
by displaying a list of all unsaved files to help the user decide what
to do with all of them.

Emacs already does the same for running processes by displaying their list
and asking a simple question:

  Active processes exist; kill them and exit anyway? "Yes"/"No"

I wonder why not to do the same for unsaved buffers?

bug#12635: A usability issue with the save dialog box

[Alex Hanif]

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Thanks Eli, Andreas, Juri,
I have reviewed the design based on your suggestions. Please find the new
muckups with the design elaborations at the end of that blog post here:
http://user.wordpress.com/2012/10/13/emacs-has-a-confusing-save-dialogue-box/
Thank you,
+Alex Hanif
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On Sat, Oct 13, 2012 at 6:05 PM, Juri Linkov <juri@jurta.org> wrote:

> > Please let me know if I can help improve Emacs.
>
> The most user-friendly UI would tell the user what pressing the button
> will do exactly.  So instead of buttons "Yes"/"No", it would display
> more explicit text in buttons: "Save"/"Don't save" or "Save"/"Discard".
>
> OTOH, Emacs is special in this regard that actions in the dialog box
> have their counterparts in the non-GUI version where "y" and "n" are keys
> to save or skip the buffer.  With the goal to maintain compatibility
> between these two versions, the GUI version could provide accelerator keys
> in the button text like "_Y_es" and "_N_o".
>
> But in case when these versions will diverge from each other,
> and also for the final question
>
>   Modified buffers exist; exit anyway?
>
> still more explicit "Yes, discard changes"/"No, cancel" or
> "Yes, close without saving"/"No, cancel" would be better.
>
> "Don't quit" to cancel the dialog is very necessary, yes,
> but a link in a dialog box a quite non-standard element.
> Much simpler would be to just add the button "Cancel".
>
> Removing the option "View This Buffer" could be accompanied with
> displaying the buffer in question unconditionally (this suggestion
> pertains to the non-GUI version as well).
>
> Regarding the multi-file operation, some applications solve this problem
> by displaying a list of all unsaved files to help the user decide what
> to do with all of them.
>
> Emacs already does the same for running processes by displaying their list
> and asking a simple question:
>
>   Active processes exist; kill them and exit anyway? "Yes"/"No"
>
> I wonder why not to do the same for unsaved buffers?
>

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bug#12635: A usability issue with the save dialog box

[Jason Rumney]

Alex Hanif <hanifbbz@gmail.com> writes:

> Hi,
>
> I am a usability designer based in Stockholm and I would like to
> suggest a few improvements to the Emacs save dialog. I have motivated
> my suggestion and put up an image of the suggested solution on my
> blog:
> http://user.wordpress.com/2012/10/13/emacs-has-a-confusing-save-dialogue-
> box/ 
> Please let me know if I can help improve Emacs.

You have some good ideas, but they seem to be based on a misconception
that each dialog in Emacs is individually designed.  That may be the
case with other applications, but is not with Emacs.  Currently Emacs
dialogs are quite limited in their capabilities, so the best approach is
probably to split this task into two:

1. Improve the options availble in the current dialog.
2. Improve Emacs's dialog capabilities (a much bigger task, especially
if backwards compatibility is to be kept).

bug#12635: A usability issue with the save dialog box

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Leo <sdl.web@gmail.com> writes:

>> I am a usability designer based in Stockholm and I would like to
>> suggest a few improvements to the Emacs save dialog. I have motivated
>> my suggestion and put up an image of the suggested solution on my
>> blog: 
>> http://user.wordpress.com/2012/10/13/emacs-has-a-confusing-save-dialogue-
>> box/  Please let me know if I can help improve Emacs.
>
> Yep, that is probably the worst design on earth and fortunately most
> people don't use it.

This has been fixed in Emacs 29 -- exiting Emacs now presents a much
simpler file-saving dialogue. 

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no