Alan Cooper

to minimize mouse movement

It is easy to abort an unwanted request, but it is always time-consuming to wait for a request to be filled.

Not only should software keep quiet about its problems, but it should also have the intelligence, confidence, and authority to fix its problems on its own.

Inconsiderate products ask lots of annoying questions. Excessive choices, especially in the form of questions, quickly stop being a benefit and instead become an ordeal.

Those with authority ask questions; subordinates respond. When software asks questions rather than offering choices, users feel disempowered.

The intervention should not, however, be in the form of a standard modal error message box that stops the action and adds insult to injury, but rather through careful visual and textual feedback that lets you know that you are messaging a group rather than a person, or that you haven’t enclosed any attachments even though you mentioned that you were.

restart the application

particularly on the web

The user then clicks

something is lost in the process