Development 
Comments Off Interface Design Oversight #1
I want to start chronicling interface design oversights, or mistakes, that I run into on websites. Hopefully creating these entries can help people to create websites and applications that are easier to use.
Mixing Positive and Negative
On the Petfinder.com’s search page you can select advanced options in the form of three checkboxes at the bottom of the search form. See Image 1 below. The first option is “Only (show) special needs pets”. The second option is “Only (show) declawed pets”. Both of these options are positive in the manner that they are worded. The terminology is positive, even though the option would technically exclude listings if checked. This is fine by itself. What’s not fine is the third option saying, “Exclude pets not recommended for children”. Suddenly we’re using negative terminology, “exclude”. Although all three options exclude listings, two of them say “Only (show)…” and one says “Exclude…”. Why wouldn’t this third option be “Only (show) pets recommended for children”? The inconsistent wording makes the interface confusing.
Image 1:
