Are you sure? How many times have you been asked that question by your computer when you wanted to delete something?
I don’t know about other folks, but I answer yes to that question about 99.9% of the time, even when I wasn’t really sure. It’s just habit. I’m as guilty as the next programmer of polluting my software with Are you sure? confirmations.
However, in my latest application, my customers really want a nice user experience. In addition to Web 2.0 features, I decided to abandom the delete confirmation and instead, offer an undo button. There’s a gridview on the page, and if you click the red X next to a row, it deletes, no questions asked. It also stores the deleted object in the session state and enables the Undo button. It’s just a one level undo, but I could have easily made a stacked list and pushed and popped the items. In most cases, a one level undo suffices.
David is an IT professional with over 26 years of experience (he started his career as a teenager). He has programmed in more languages and on more types of computers (and similar devices) than he can remember, including TRS-80 Model I Level 2, Commodore Vic-20 and C-64, C-128, Industrial Process Controllers, CP/M machines, and Intel 80x86+ architectures. He currently uses Microsoft .NET Framework tools and SQL Server.
When he's not geeking out, he studies the Martial Art, Aikido; engages in community volunteer work; writes fiction (as well as non-fiction blogs); and does home rennovation work.
He lives in Charlotte NC, USA. 