What’s with dialogs that provide a user with input choices that answer a question that was never asked? Take a look with me.
This always catches my ire and it started at least 20 years ago with Windows XP, anytime you used it in safe mode. Upon a safe mode login, you’d receive a prompt asking you to pick yes or no, but no question is ever posed, only abit implied in a very grammatically awkward way.
Windows is running in safe mode. This special diagnostic mode of Windows enables you to fix a problem which may be caused by your network or hardware settings. make sure these settings are correct in Control Panel, and then try starting windows again. While in safe mode, some of your devices may not be available. To proceed to work in safe mode click Yes if you prefer to use system restore to restore your computer to a previous state click No.
Windows XP, 2002
So at some point, given the choices of Yes or No, should not the dialog have asked a question to which those would be valid responses? Perhaps “Would you like to proceed to work in safe mode?”
And look it’s been more than two decades and it hasn’t changed at all. Today I got this dialog from the new Outlook beta:
Outlook has become unresponsive. Select YES to restart or NO to continue waiting.
Outlook, 2023.
[Yes] [No]
The implied question that was never asked: “Do you want to restart outlook?”
Uninstalling old software, it comes up yet again.
You must restart the computer for the installation changes made to Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard center to take effect. Click Yes to restart the computer now, or click No to restart later. Note that your device may not be fully functional until you restart.
Mouse and Keyboard Center, 2023
[Yes] [No]
Yes it’s minor, but it drives me batty. Why use a yes/no dialog input if you aren’t asking a yes/no question?
I have a hunch it’s a weird semi-dark pattern (gray pattern?) in an attempt to get the user to go back and read the dialog instead of just immediately clicking OK. Or maybe it’s just lazy coding and they used the first dialog box function call they found. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
