Outsight Interactive - Finally, the official word on "OK - Cancel" or "Cancel - OK" - Comments

Great observations, Jon.

Denise — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:32:55 -0400

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

One thing I'd be aware of is

Jon Reil — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:59:35 -0400

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.

Finally, the official word on "OK - Cancel" or "Cancel - OK"

Denise — Tue, 27 May 2008 14:22:37 -0400

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