Better design for more effective warning pop ups
To ensure effective communication, people used to rely heavily on language. Carefully structured, properly punctuated sentences did the important work of conveying messages clearly. Note the difference between, “Let’s eat Grandma,” and “Let’s eat, Grandma.” (It’s the comma, in case you didn’t catch it.) Language usage was once held to the highest standards in order to avoid potentially hazardous miscommunications, like the above. It’s the reason your teachers told you, “Spelling counts,” even when you were being tested in a subject like math, where it didn’t seem to matter. It’s the reason you may have even diagrammed a few sentences in your day.
From Stefano Brivio.
These days, however, the English language isn’t held to such high standards. Technology has made the concept of correct spelling passé and unconventional abbreviations the new norm. Punctuation is often dropped altogether. Capitalization isn’t reserved for proper nouns and beginnings of sentences; it’s a way to shout on virtual paper.
These observations aren’t necessarily meant as judgments. Language changes over time. It’s just what language does. As long as it continues to do its job of helping people to communicate clearly, there isn’t much point in hanging onto the past.
And when language proves its continually missing the mark in some areas, other steps are in order. Case in point: Those befuddling pop up messages that warn you away from certain websites, using language you can’t quite understand even if you’ve spoken and written it your entire life. Called SSL/TSL warnings, these notifications are heavy on text, yet they don’t seem to convey any meaningful information to the average internet user. Like a lot of messages from the technological realm, they fail on clarity and assume a base of tech knowledge most people simply don’t possess.
Mystifying written messages could arguably be improved through rewrites and editing. But, researchers at Google and the University of Pennsylvania tried that and found it didn’t really work to keep internet users away from unsafe sites. Another solution proved superior: Design that sends a clear message to users, guiding them where they need to go. For example, researchers changed the colors of buttons users click when they decide whether or not to proceed to an unsafe site. When the button to the unsafe site was grey and the button navigating away from the site was a familiar bright blue (like we see all the time in links), more users made the wise choice to avoid the site.
Researchers have yet to come up with language for pop ups that could educate average Internet users on tech concepts like encryption, security credentials, and, perhaps, even the meaning of SSL/TSL. But for now, they’re focusing on the end rather than the means: design concepts that work where language doesn’t—or hasn’t yet. Internet users need guidance more than they need an education on tech concepts.
In this case, design delivers.