Lack of interest Explicit cancel action for inserting links/images

[Kirby]

Even after many years in forum business users sometimes surprise me in discovering UI issues I would have never thought of

A user has asked for support because he can't successfully insert a named link into the editor:
He starts by clicking the insert link icon in the editor which brings up the insert link dialog.
He pastes the URL which he has copied from a website opened in another window, switches to that website to copy the title, clicks back into the forum window to paste the title text into the title field of the insert link dialog.
At this point the insert link dialog does get closed because of a click outside of the dialog and he has to start all over again.
According to him, the only way to make insert link work is to type in either the URL or the title instead of copy-pasting it.

I know that this is a bit moronic and I would have never thought of such an issue as I would just copy the URL without bothering for the title or automatically click into the target field when going back to the forum window, but I am sure that if this user is reporting this issue others might experience it as well and do get annoyed by it.

A quite easy solution could be to add an explicit cancel button to the insert link and insert image dialogs and prevent them from getting closed when a click outside of the dialog occurs - there is enough screen space for such a button and it does not make it (much) more complicated to cancel the dialog with a click than it is right now.

 

[Old Nick]

When you just past the link in the text area it will be transformed automatically with the page title concerned, isn't it ? Why this user does not do that?
Personnaly I use the insert link button only if I want set a different title for the link, that's how I see the usefulness of this tool.

 

[S Thomas]

clicks back into the forum window

Maybe he shouldn't click into the window, but onto the tab..

 

[Kirby]

Of course he should click the tab and not into the window, that's why I would have never thought of such an issue. But the point is that users do behave like that and we can't educate every single one. Instead we should try to make the UI as foolproof as possible, hence my suggestion to add a cancel button.

 

[DragonByte Tech]

A quite easy solution could be to add an explicit cancel button to the insert link and insert image dialogs and prevent them from getting closed when a click outside of the dialog occurs

This would break learned behaviour from every (well-designed) overlay on every site, not just XenForo. Ever since modals were first invented, users have been used to being able to click outside them to close them.

Websites where the modal doesn't close with click outside or hitting the Esc key tend to make users leave, because having to snipe an X or a cancel button is not what users want to do.

Personally, I would be opposed to this suggestion being implemented, but that's just my personal opinion.


Fillip

 

[S Thomas]

^
It's the same as with the password / email confirm thingy. Would be step backwards to implement something like this. Not to forget that the URL box could probably overlap with other boxes which actually close on a click outside.

 

[Kirby]

@DragonByte Tech
Valid points. Another option coud probably be to ignore the first click after the window has lost and regained focus, though this could also confuse users who want to leave the window and come back to close the open dialog.
As said before, I think this is kind of an edge-case.

 

[DragonByte Tech]

As said before, I think this is kind of an edge-case.

Then it's not really a UI issue as mentioned in your OP, is it?

Any reasonable person in the world would see "oh, clicking outside of the box closes the box. Gotcha, I'll remember that." - that doesn't make it a design issue, that makes it a "this person has never seen this before but after trying it once has learned" issue.

If someone asks for support because they can't figure out that clicking outside the box closes the window, even though it should take fewer than five tries to figure this out for a normal, competent person, then we shouldn't design around that, IMO.


Fillip

 

[Kirby]

It is a UI issue in a edge-case usage scenario
I am fine if tis is left as-is, just wanted to bring up feeback we got from users ... one user to be precise.

Ideally the software should know what the intent of the user is and behave accordingly, unfortunately I think that this is not (yet) possible.