Using “Discard” or “Cancel” is like assuming all users make mistakes when editing options and want to discard them because they don’t even remember what changes they introduced and they can’t change it manually.
While we should assume the opposite: most users pay attention.
I don’t want to offend anyone, but I don’t like the approach that Anki should be “low IQ resistant”. Anki is addressed to people who want to develop themselves intellectually.
Anki requires at least reading a manual to understand these options in the first place or watching some youtube videos.
So, the first step requires some intellectual challenge. If people don’t understand options they should not change them in the first place. If they are capable of understanding manual they should be capable of pressing save button as well. The rest is attention and as I described earlier and the story about pop-ups no option will prevent lack of attention.
You are arguing against what I am saying, against the ages old proven design patterns and even against Damien’s position. Why? If the prompt is added, and if, urhm, your IQ is high enough, you will never see the prompt that I’m asking about. There is no downside! But this will help the folk with low IQ such as myself.
Maybe placing Save button at the bottom of preferences window and OK/Cloze button to cloze window would be a compromise and it would serve its purpose?
A bottom bar that keeps always its position like in preferences window would be necessary.
My proposition addresses Damian’s concerns and fits with Preferences design and also with other applications design, like LO Writer, for example. This means some already existing code of Anki can be utilized.
To make it clear: I didn’t say that using pop-up reflects some low IQ but I concluded that we shall not assume that users generally don’t know what they are doing. Exactly the opposite is the correct assumption in designing applications and all kinds of machines. Safety precautions are important (for example backup is also a safety precaution) but the mindset should be that people generally speaking are aware of what they do. Otherwise there could be as well a pop-up saying: “Don’t touch it because you may destroy it.”
