I have often been asked by clients about the better order for the OK and Cancel buttons. Finally,
Jakob Nielsen has published an 'official' answer
To sum up:
- Either is perfectly fine.
- The question is not of great concern as neither poses a big threat to usability.
- If you need a tie-breaker, go with the platform convention that most of your users are known to use.
- Generally on the web, most users are on Windows, so "OK" then "Cancel" is the platform convention to follow.
Lastly, and perhaps, most importantly, he points out:
- There are questions in usability that are, perhaps, not worth the time spent debating them
Submitted by Jon Reil (not verified) on July 17, 2008 - 1:59pm.
One thing I'd be aware of is how the order of these buttons translates to users that have to tab through your interface. One would think that you would want the action item to be the first item chosen as it would more than likely be their preferred choice.
One other question that comes to mind is: Should these both be portrayed visually as buttons? Or should the primary action be a button and the secondary action be a link... so [OK] and then cancel ?
Just a couple more interesting things to think about in these somewhat never-ending debates.
Submitted by Denise on July 17, 2008 - 8:32pm.
Great observations, Jon.
Luke W shows those kinds of treatment options for primary and secondary actions at the bottom of the following: Web Application Form Design
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