Un-progress: Let’s make it easy to close programs inadvertently!

Years ago, I recall, it was pretty much universal that when you supplied the keystroke(s) that closed a program, you’d be asked, “Do you really want to close this program?” Then you’d either confirm — with a “Y,” typically — or, if the cancellation had been accidentally, you’d say “No, thanks,” probably with an “N.”

This intelligent design feature was presumably based on what software engineers knew from their own experience: Everyone makes typing errors, so accidental closing are a not-infrequent irritant–and helping to avoid them was sensible and courteous. Moreover, you weren’t exactly slowed down when you did want to cancel. You quickly got used to adding the confirming ”Y” to the closing keystrokes automatically, which added only an unnoticeable sliver of a second to the time necessary to close.  

But somehow that little fail-safe has been eliminated from many programs, thus permitting an annoyance that used to be routinely prevented. That’s a fine example of negative progress in design, a truly dumb and inconsiderate un-improvement — and, inevitably, it seems to have become very common now.  Consider the geniuses at Google, for example, in their photo-handling program Picasa, and the geniuses at Photoshop: All that brainpower doesn’t provide enough thoughtfulness to supply their programs’ ejection seats with a safety switch.  

P.S. For any users who might not wish to supply that confirming keystroke, programs could obviously make that feature optional, thereby satisfying everyone. But to do so would allow customization in a way that would actually accommodate users; and that’s a concept that is ignored with such widespread enthusiasm that it deserves its own post.