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PatternExpert heuristicFoundational

Confirmation

An interruption that should be reserved for genuinely irreversible actions, because it stops being read when it is routine.

Definition

A confirmation asks the user to approve an action before it proceeds. Its usefulness decays with frequency: a confirmation the user sees daily is dismissed reflexively and provides no protection.

Expert heuristic. A review criterion developed by practitioners. Useful and widely taught, but evaluated by judgement rather than measurement.

On this page
  1. Definition
  2. Decide whether you need one
  3. Writing the dialog
  4. In practice
  5. Continue from here

Decide whether you need one

  1. 1

    Is it reversible?

    If yes, do not confirm. Provide undo instead.

  2. 2

    Is it recoverable within a window?

    If yes, use a soft delete with a visible restore path.

  3. 3

    Is it irreversible and significant?

    Confirm, naming the specific object and consequence.

  4. 4

    Is it irreversible and catastrophic?

    Require the user to type the object name, which forces deliberate attention.

Writing the dialog

Do

  • Put the consequence in the heading: 'Delete 14 files permanently?'
  • Label the action button with the verb, not 'OK'.
  • Say what cannot be undone, and what can.
  • Make cancel visually secondary but easy to hit.

Do not

  • Ask 'Are you sure?' with no information.
  • Style the destructive action as the primary button by default.
  • Confirm reversible actions.
  • Use a confirmation to compensate for a mis-tap-prone layout. Fix the layout.

In practice

Type-to-confirm

Developer tools

Requiring the exact name of the resource before deletion is friction proportional to consequence. Applying it to routine actions would be absurd, which is the point.

Continue from here

Each link says what the connection is, so you can tell a principle from an alternative from a thing people mix this up with.

Applies when you are designing

A CheckoutAuthenticationSettings

Principles behind this

The reasoning this solution is an application of.

Often used with

These usually appear in the same screen or the same decision.

Alternative approach

A different answer to the same problem, with a different cost.

  • UndoPattern

    Undo costs nothing when the user was right. Confirmation taxes every action to catch the rare mistake.

Related concept

Connected closely enough to change how you apply this.