[Sigia-l] "close window" links in pop-ups

[Marios Pittas]

In a recent (Design + Prototype Development + Prototype Testing + UI Standards ) excericse, we faced a similar question (whether one still needs to provide a close button or just let users ("force" users?) to use the windowing environment "x" widget).

Initially we thought that there was no need for the "x" button, however we were forced to rethink our design because during the prototype testing:

1. Users were moving from a windows client based environment which provided a close button. When the extra "link" was there some of our users (especially the older and less educated - see point 2) were severely impacted.

2. The younger, more educated, more internet savvy users (3 different groups with significant but not neccessary overlap) had little difficulty in using the "x" widget (at worse only the first time faced such a window). HOWEVER, older people, who had very little contact time with computers (let alone the internet) had severe difficulties (and here I am talking about not so well educated, most of the time less well paid, older people who may have less than 1 hr of contact time per week with a computer and with very little computing experience).

As such we included the close button in the design, as well as in the UI standards for the other parts of the system to follow.

In our experience the system target group is vital when making answering such questions and making decisions.

Marios 




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