[Sigia-l] Form Usability - Search & Cancel location

[Cory Preus]

Hi all-

I've been lurking for a while and well, it's high time I added my thoughts.
Recently a coworker of mine and I have discussed the very subject regarding
the order of Cancel and Submit on web sites.

My opinion is Cancel | Submit where a user is continuing the process; like
turning a page in a book (two different mediums, yet it feels right).

My coworker's opinion is the converse: Submit | Cancel whereby reading from
left to right, he'd prefer to encounter the Submit first.

Both rationalizations make sense. I'm inclined to lean towards my bias,
however. ;) All told, therein lies the dilemma. Apple has a UI guide; the
web does not. The guidelines set by Apple within the OS are pretty closely
held by developers as it is a close community; while Web is a disparate
range of people in a obnoxiously large community with many subsets (this
list for one). 

All told, I'm inclined to believe that in this case there isn't a right
answer...consistency across sites would help immensely though...creating the
expectation and understanding that a form interaction is fundamentally
similar.

This is what drives me absolutely crazy about Windows machines (I can't
speak to Linux since my experience is limited). There was some discussion
about the save dialog box. In Win2k, the Save is above the Cancel button.
When emptying the Recycle Bin, the OK button is to the left of Cancel. Both
OK and Save continue the task...fundamentally identical functions. So I
would expect them to have similar locations. But no -- it leaves the user to
have to learn the context of each dialog before continuing or canceling the
task.

I've been meaning to put together a site which samples users and their
preference for Submit button locations. Maybe I'll do it soon; or if one of
you gets froggy and leaps, more power to you. It'd be interesting to see
research based on our hunches and if one bias or the other is statistically
"correct".

Cheers,
Cory