Data loss is one of the greatest frustrations users can experience with computers. They not only lose their data but also their time and money they put into it. For businesses, this could mean hundreds of man-hours and thousands of dollars lost. Don’t let this happen to your users.
A study found that human error causes 30% of data loss disasters [1]. This means that good UX design can prevent these disasters from happening. Below are a few techniques that’ll prevent your users from ever experiencing this frustration.
When users press a button with a destructive action, don’t execute it immediately. There’s a chance they may have pressed the button by mistake. What you should do instead is prompt users to confirm the action with a confirmation screen.
Do not make the destructive action button a normal color like blue. Instead, use a red button to warn users they’re about to commit a dangerous act. Red is a strong visual cue for warnings because it captures attention easily.
Avoid using red buttons for normal call to actions, otherwise you’ll alarm users. Reserve them for destructive actions only. Cool colored buttons are better suited for normal call to actions because they’re less alarming.
While a red button alerts most users, some may not take it seriously.
➡️Additional visual cues would make the warning stronger for everyone. This especially helps color blind and visually impaired users who have trouble seeing color differences.
➡️To give your warning signal more strength, display an icon on the confirmation screen that represents the destructive action.
For example, the icon for delete that users are familiar with is a trash can. When users see the icon, they’ll associate the current action with deletion.