Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Confirmation dialogs
Raised as a usability problem by 17 people on Hacker News over 17 years (2010–2026), in 16 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
People habitually click past confirmation dialogs unreadUnreviewed
20102026- Users click yes automatically, so confirmations fail to prevent mistakes2026-02-01
- Users mindlessly dismiss confirmation warnings through muscle memory, leading to wrong actions2022-10-19
- Confirmation dialogs pull attention away so users forget their original task2020-10-28
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 17 complaints
- Users click yes automatically, so confirmations fail to prevent mistakes2026-02-01
- Cancel button cancels the cancel, causing hesitation about which button to press2023-11-01
- Warning doesn't say whether unsaved changes will actually be lost or what they are2022-11-23
- Users mindlessly dismiss confirmation warnings through muscle memory, leading to wrong actions2022-10-19
- Confirmation dialogs pull attention away so users forget their original task2020-10-28
- Confirmation prompts second-guess users and interrupt every action unnecessarily2018-06-09
- Repeated verb button labels like Cancel and Cancel are confusing2018-06-09
- People habitually click through confirmation boxes without reading them2018-05-01
- Too many confirmation prompts make users click through without reading them2018-03-19
- Users habitually click yes on confirmation pop-ups, so they fail to catch mistakes2018-01-16
- Users reflexively click through confirmations, so they fail to catch mistakes2018-01-15
- Confirmation dialogs interrupt deliberate close and delete actions and feel annoying2017-11-04
- Users ignore confirmation dialogs and can't recall what they said2015-08-11
- Confirmation dialogs make users likely to click the wrong button and make mistakes2014-03-27
- Users habitually click past confirmation dialogs without reading them2012-10-09
- Users press Enter on confirmation dialogs without reading them, so they stop protecting anything2012-06-29
- Generic OK and Cancel labels make users unsure what they are confirming2010-10-09