How many warnings are too many?

[Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>]

David Downing wondered: <<This raises another question. At what point  
do cautions and warnings become counterproductive because people start  
dismissing them?>>

That's a great question. Unfortunately, I don't think there's any good  
answer to it, since the answer is likely to vary among contexts. I've  
certainly seen ample anecdotal evidence (and one or two mentions of  
the problem in published studies on other topics -- though I'd be hard  
pressed to find them again) that as in the fable of the boy who cried  
wolf, warnings start being disregarded the moment they begin to seem  
meaningless. If you tell someone to beware something, and nothing  
happens, it's human nature to get a bit cocky and start ignoring the  
risk. Similarly, people get numbed by an unending stream of dialogs;  
after a time, people blindly click the OK button without actually  
reading the dialog.

The larger question is more interesting: Why are we wasting our time  
and endangering the user by creating warnings? We should never choose  
to warn someone when we could, with a little (or a lot of) thought,  
design the product to prevent the problem from arising in the first  
place.

This can sometimes be surprisingly easy. For example, the whole notion  
of the "Are you sure you want to delete this file?" dialog is  
completely misguided: 99% of the time, of course we want to delete it!  
In the unlikely event that we didn't, why don't you just delete the  
file anyway instead of annoying us with a message, but instead of  
removing the file so that even the NSA couldn't recover it, why not  
put the deleted copy somewhere safe, where I can retrieve it in a few  
days or a month if I want? Then clearly indicate in the docs, indexed  
under at least three synonyms, how I can recover deleted files.

It can also be much, much harder. Some industrial equipment is simply  
inherently dangerous, and there is no obvious (or inobvious) way to  
protect the user completely. But in that case, warning messages again  
miss the point. The better solution is rigorous training, and a very  
clear product disclaimer: "This is a dangerous product, and we won't  
sell it to you unless you receive accredited training in its use from  
us or someone we've certified to do the job right." Yeah, like that'll  
ever happen. <g> But if you think of other fields where human life is  
at stake, the notion becomes more realistic: if doctors have to  
recertify every few years to ensure they don't kill their patients,  
why are the operators of dangerous machinery exempt from such a  
requirement?

Bottom line: Though it's easy enough to meet some nominal standard  
(e.g., OSHA labeling) for warning messages, stopping there is lazy and  
possibly even unethical. We owe it to our miscellaneous audiences to  
be cognizant of the risks they face, and to make strong efforts to  
save them from themselves. That means questioning "best  
practices" [sic] such as relying excessively on warnings, and thinking  
more about how to prevent the problems in the first place.

--------------------------------------------------------
Geoff Hart (www.geoff-hart.com)
ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca / geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com
--------------------------------------------------------
***Now available***  _Effective onscreen editing_
(http://www.geoff-hart.com/books/eoe/onscreen-book.htm)

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