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up vote 24 down vote favorite
3

I am working with order page. When user presses on Cancel Order button, he should choose one of the following:

  1. Cancel order.
  2. (opposite of cancel) order. (this choice means don't do anything with order) by default this choice on other cases should be "cancel"

What is the opposite of cancel on this case?

Keep in mind, cancel is usually what you press to decline an action in a UI situation, and here on my second choice, I am trying to do that.

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3  
Is this when an order is already placed? So will the user be cancelling an out standing order? Or is this one of the last steps of the order process? – Paul van den Dool 21 hours ago
    
first choice,order already placed – Mike Darwish 20 hours ago
    
confirm order? or am I missing something? – Devin 17 hours ago
    
Process, Proceed, Affirm, Confirm, Action would all be the opposites to Cancel in many cases. – TafT 17 hours ago
2  
No one suggested "continue this order"? As a marketing bonus, it's quite engaging. – Gras Double 8 hours ago
up vote 70 down vote accepted

Cancel might be too vague. I always like to be more descriptive when asking users to perform a quite destructive task. This often reduces any anxiety users might have.

mockup

download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups

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2  
This also stops the users from reacting instinctively to the buttons they were used to, like "OK" or "Cancel", and makes them actually read what this unusual (for a dialog window) sequence of letters means. – Ruslan 17 hours ago
2  
@Ruslan That's key. I can't count how many times I've "auto-clicked" a button because I assumed the meaning of an overly-simple label... only to be wrong. – Carcigenicate 17 hours ago
2  
Good answer. I'd like to add something... Because "cancel" is so often used to indicate that a state is being left unchanged, I'd suggest not using that word at all. So the button could be "Delete Order," then the confirmation can be "Are you sure you want to delete this order? [Yes, delete the order] [No, keep the order]." – Ken Mohnkern 15 hours ago
2  
@KenMohnkern I don't think I agree. Cancel also means to revoke and is in this case applicable. – Paul van den Dool 15 hours ago
2  
That's true, @PaulvandenDool. But I think it's better in general to use words that are less ambiguous. – Ken Mohnkern 14 hours ago
up vote 15 down vote

Have you considered giving the user an undo button instead? It reduces the cognitive overhead because no choice actually has to be made in the normal case and reduces the input from always having to do two actions (click cancel and then confirm/other) to only a single action when the user actually wants to cancel:

example undo flow

Wireframes made in Pencil.

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2  
The undo option is really good. Currently it is described in material.io (bit.ly/2m1vgly) and I think it is extremely user friendly. – digulino 14 hours ago
    
Undo is the way to go! – theonlygusti 12 hours ago
    
This is not the same as the 2 button scenario, if the user don't know that it's possible to undo the cancel operation afterwards (since it's invisible before the action). It can, for example, lead to users afraid of pressing the button. In some cases it works, but it should really be tested. – Henrik Ekblom 2 hours ago
    
Google and Amazon both use this pattern extensively. Of course users who don't actually want to cancel the order should be afraid of pressing the button. Users who click it by accident still have a way of saving themselves from themselves though, which they wouldn't do if instead of an undo button they get a confusing dialogue, and then click the wrong thing. – l0b0 2 hours ago
    
@HenrikEkblom, if the user doesn't know that they will be required to confirm the 'cancellation', doesn't your comment also apply to the other answer? Personally, one advantage of the 'undo' option is that it is not necessarily a one-time choice - i.e. the user can possibly go back later and undo the action in some way (although this is OT for this question). FWIW though, I think that both the top two answers have their place and I find that this SE often leaves me thinking more deeply about the range of UX choices available, even for such a seemingly simple question. – zelanix 45 mins ago
up vote 2 down vote

The first thing that came to mind given your example was:

  1. Cancel order
  2. Proceed with order

One goes back, the other one forward. Maybe too forward-ey though?

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up vote 1 down vote

The opposite of cancel would be some sort of acceptance but I don't think that's really what you're wanting in this case. How about something like "Close" or "Exit without cancelling order"?

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up vote 0 down vote

I know another answer with Yes / No buttons has already been given, and accepted, but I just want to add this.

If a button says something and then a confirmation dialog pops up saying "are you sure you want to ..." and the same word, there is often a knee-jerk reaction to hit "Yes" without giving it much thought.

So the user hits a button called "Cancel" and the dialog says "Are you sure you want to cancel?" then the natural reaction is going for Yes. That's the button I clicked, so that's what I want to do!

A better approach would be to briefly describe what would happen without using the word "cancel" again. Or the words "are you sure".

This will remove your standing order. Proceed?

                      Yes      No 

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up vote 0 down vote

My opinion is that the "cancel" button should be visible for the user, but in the case, it is the only button on the page, the user could be influenced and will be not in your interest that he change his decision to make that order.

I suggest you add a disabled button with "Confirmed" because he confirmed the order when he finished it or a button with "Edit" if he has this option.

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up vote -2 down vote

Can also be something like this:

Can you please tell us if you want to cancel your order?

Yes, that's precisely what I am willing at doing.

No, I don't really intend to do such a thing.

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1  
But users don't read. – Scott 7 hours ago

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