Comments on: No undo? Redo! http://www.svennerberg.com/2008/07/no-undo-redo/ A blog about web developement and usability. Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:02:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: My Domain http://www.svennerberg.com/2008/07/no-undo-redo/comment-page-1/#comment-11928 My Domain Fri, 05 Feb 2010 01:23:51 +0000 http://www.svennerberg.com/?p=37#comment-11928 <strong>Joe...</strong> Check out my domain sometime.... Joe…

Check out my domain sometime….

]]> By: Sjors Timmer » Blog Archive » Design of Flow http://www.svennerberg.com/2008/07/no-undo-redo/comment-page-1/#comment-6999 Sjors Timmer » Blog Archive » Design of Flow Mon, 03 Aug 2009 21:55:14 +0000 http://www.svennerberg.com/?p=37#comment-6999 [...] user without informing. Enable and encourage to play seems like the best solution. (And also why an undo function is so important [...] [...] user without informing. Enable and encourage to play seems like the best solution. (And also why an undo function is so important [...]

]]> By: Gabriel Svennerberg http://www.svennerberg.com/2008/07/no-undo-redo/comment-page-1/#comment-2087 Gabriel Svennerberg Mon, 23 Feb 2009 08:08:33 +0000 http://www.svennerberg.com/?p=37#comment-2087 <strong><em>Simon:</em></strong> Well, although it might seem granted that having an undo is a superior solution to just have alerts, I find it odd that it's so rare in web applications. Yes, there are circumstances when there's really hard to implement an undo, like many of the examples you bring up, but there's also a lot of circumstances when it's really easy to implement it. I think the main problem is that it's often is not taken into consideration at all when building a solution. It's quite possible to have undo in airline ticket booking systems but the underlying systems need to support this. Right now the bookings systems out there are archaic and does not, so right now it's probably really hard to do. But if this had been taken into consideration while designing these systems, it's really shouldn't be any problem to implement. You're absolutely right that we need more patterns on how to implement undo in web applications. I think I will do my part and write an article about one way to implement it. Simon: Well, although it might seem granted that having an undo is a superior solution to just have alerts, I find it odd that it’s so rare in web applications. Yes, there are circumstances when there’s really hard to implement an undo, like many of the examples you bring up, but there’s also a lot of circumstances when it’s really easy to implement it. I think the main problem is that it’s often is not taken into consideration at all when building a
solution.

It’s quite possible to have undo in airline ticket booking systems but the underlying systems need to support this. Right now the bookings systems out there are archaic and does not, so right now it’s probably really hard to do. But if this had been taken into consideration while designing these systems, it’s really shouldn’t be any problem to implement.

You’re absolutely right that we need more patterns on how to implement undo in web applications. I think I will do my part and write an article about one way to implement it.

]]> By: Simon http://www.svennerberg.com/2008/07/no-undo-redo/comment-page-1/#comment-2082 Simon Mon, 23 Feb 2009 02:09:25 +0000 http://www.svennerberg.com/?p=37#comment-2082 I find it kind of redundant to soap box on about it but essentially your point, that it's superior to provide undo or multistep undo over a confirmation dialog can be pretty much taken for granted. What would have been of more value would be suggestions on how to implement mutli step undo given a website's potential for actions to be affecting disparate datasources where transaction boundaries may not be defined or able to be rolled back. Distributed systems can make undo functionality very difficult, for example undoing making an airline ticket booking or an online purchase may require distributed transaction coordination between many independent systems, e.g. the financial system, fulfilment system, the website itself (shopping cart), etc. I find it kind of redundant to soap box on about it but essentially your point, that it’s superior to provide undo or multistep undo over a confirmation dialog can be pretty much taken for granted.

What would have been of more value would be suggestions on how to implement mutli step undo given a website’s potential for actions to be affecting disparate datasources where transaction boundaries may not be defined or able to be rolled back. Distributed systems can make undo functionality very difficult, for example undoing making an airline ticket booking or an online purchase may require distributed transaction coordination between many independent systems, e.g. the financial system, fulfilment system, the website itself (shopping cart), etc.

]]> By: uxdpxn » Blog Archive » Design of Flow http://www.svennerberg.com/2008/07/no-undo-redo/comment-page-1/#comment-1648 uxdpxn » Blog Archive » Design of Flow Sat, 31 Jan 2009 20:24:21 +0000 http://www.svennerberg.com/?p=37#comment-1648 [...] user without informing. Enable and encourage to play seems like the best solution. (And also why an undo function is so important [...] [...] user without informing. Enable and encourage to play seems like the best solution. (And also why an undo function is so important [...]

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