Flex Component: Confirmation Window with Count-down to Enabled OK
After years of abuse of pop-ups and confirmation boxes users have become so honed at the skill of simply clicking the OK button on any kind of confirmation box that pops up that it has become almost nothing more than a reflex. This can cause some serious issues when it really matters.
In my flex application I needed to increase the chances of a user actually reading the notice in the pop-up box as much as reasonably possible within the user experience. The solution I decided to use is I believe fairly common to anyone with windows experience; it's also one I would use sparingly!
When the confirmation dialogue is presented the OK button is disabled at first. Instead a countdown timer is displayed on the button. After that timeout the user can then click "OK"; The cancel button is available at all times.
The code isn't rocket science and making use of the pop-up is so simple I won't even bore you with an example, but it is a nice quick fix if you need it.
Source view is enabled on the Flex demo
Banned in Boston wrote on 10/29/09 3:19 PM
Or, you could do what some installers do: to enable the OK button, make users type in a word which is found in the text of the pop-up. (Yes, that is pretty obnoxious--I wouldn't use that technique lightly). A slightly less onerous variation is to put a radio button or check box at the end of the text and enable the OK button when the radio button or check box is selected. This one is more commonly seen when the text is long (and therefore a scroll bar is likely).
Of course, the best design (at least from a usability perspective) is to avoid the necessity for a modal pop-up in the first place!