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I am really puzzled by the arguments presented by several people that it some sort of UI faux pas to have anything selected after the user deletes a file. By that argument, all of the following applications are doing something terribly wrong:
- In Mac Mail, when you delete a message, the next message is selected.
- In iPhoto, when you delete a photo, the next photo is selected.
- In iTunes, when you delete a song, the next song is selected.
- In a generic Mac listbox, when you delete a line, the next line is selected. For example, open Safari's Preferences dialog, go to the AutoFill tab, and click "Edit..." next to the "Other forms" option. Select any line in that listbox and then click "Remove" or press the Delete key. The next item will be selected.
- In TextEdit (and in pretty much every other text editor in existence), when you delete some text, the insertion point is left at the point where the deletion occurred. Sure, it's just an insertion point as opposed to some selected text, but don't forget that at that point, pressing the Delete key again will delete the next character, so this is a valid counterargument to abitgone's argument that "the system should never place you in a position where you could accidentally delete things." And by most definitions, an insertion point is a form of selection, so this may also serve as a valid counterargument to Frylock's argument that "nothing should be selected without the user's explicit wish."
- In Gmail, if you have keyboard shortcuts turned on, then if you delete or archive a message, it automatically selects the following message.
- In Google Spreadsheets, if one cell is selected and you delete the row, the corresponding cell from the next row down is selected.
Enough examples? Of course there are many, many more. Are Apple and Google wrong to be using this metaphor in the above cases? I realize that examples don't prove the validity of a UI metaphor; but they do provide circumstantial evidence that that UI metaphor is widely understood and accepted by users -- that it "works" for them. Would you honestly prefer that every one of the above apps change its behavior? In addition, as far as Apple's own products go, the Finder is clearly the exception here -- personally, I wasn't able to find a single other Apple product that had the Finder's behavior. So the point is, if we agree that Apple is, in general, good at UI, then we should give some weight to the fact that in almost every case, Apple has decided that it makes sense to select the next item after the previous one is deleted. They clearly do not see this as a bad UI pattern.
After deleting a file, the next file should be selected
Wrote on August 28, 2008, 5:48pm
I am really puzzled by the arguments presented by several people that it some sort of UI faux pas to have anything selected after the user deletes a file. By that argument, all of the following applications are doing something terribly wrong:
- In Mac Mail, when you delete a message, the next message is selected.
- In iPhoto, when you delete a photo, the next photo is selected.
- In iTunes, when you delete a song, the next song is selected.
- In a generic Mac listbox, when you delete a line, the next line is selected. For example, open Safari's Preferences dialog, go to the AutoFill tab, and click "Edit..." next to the "Other forms" option. Select any line in that listbox and then click "Remove" or press the Delete key. The next item will be selected.
- In TextEdit (and in pretty much every other text editor in existence), when you delete some text, the insertion point is left at the point where the deletion occurred. Sure, it's just an insertion point as opposed to some selected text, but don't forget that at that point, pressing the Delete key again will delete the next character, so this is a valid counterargument to abitgone's argument that "the system should never place you in a position where you could accidentally delete things." And by most definitions, an insertion point is a form of selection, so this may also serve as a valid counterargument to Frylock's argument that "nothing should be selected without the user's explicit wish."
- In Gmail, if you have keyboard shortcuts turned on, then if you delete or archive a message, it automatically selects the following message.
- In Google Spreadsheets, if one cell is selected and you delete the row, the corresponding cell from the next row down is selected.
Enough examples? Of course there are many, many more. Are Apple and Google wrong to be using this metaphor in the above cases? I realize that examples don't prove the validity of a UI metaphor; but they do provide circumstantial evidence that that UI metaphor is widely understood and accepted by users -- that it "works" for them. Would you honestly prefer that every one of the above apps change its behavior? In addition, as far as Apple's own products go, the Finder is clearly the exception here -- personally, I wasn't able to find a single other Apple product that had the Finder's behavior. So the point is, if we agree that Apple is, in general, good at UI, then we should give some weight to the fact that in almost every case, Apple has decided that it makes sense to select the next item after the previous one is deleted. They clearly do not see this as a bad UI pattern.