Last modified: 2014-09-06 23:17:35 UTC
This came up on mailing list. Proposal: Explore right aligning all form buttons, and reordering buttons. See https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/design/2014-September/002050.html for details. Originally filed in bug 65317
Change 156838 had a related patch set uploaded by Jdlrobson: Update preferences form buttons to be right aligned. https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/156838
I think this would be a bit confusing if we place the most important button last. People read from left-to-right (except for those who read right-to-left, of course ;) ), so the buttons should also go left-to-right in LTR languages. (If you decide to do this anyway, please take special care in the implementation to not break tabindex ordering. The primary button should focus first, not last.)
(In reply to Bartosz Dziewoński from comment #2) > I think this would be a bit confusing if we place the most important button > last. People read from left-to-right (except for those who read > right-to-left, of course ;) ), so the buttons should also go left-to-right > in LTR languages. My understanding is the theory is that by putting the most important button last, you minimize the brief "where was that button?" moment (after you've read all the buttons, right before you click). The idea being that it's fresh in your memory since you just saw it. > (If you decide to do this anyway, please take special care in the > implementation to not break tabindex ordering. The primary button should > focus first, not last.) I'm not actually sure what we should do here. Some people would probably find it simpler if tabindex matched the visual order (that would break tab muscle memory, but changing the visual order already breaks muscle memory, so it's the same issue).
Bartosz, Matt is correct, additionally, if the primary action is rightmost (in LTR)its in a known place, in the composition of a form left aligned buttons, especially when they share a line with other controls can be hard to pick out as important when they are in a known place, along the edge, the user has less to parse though. for tab index order we should probably go right to left within the button group.
