Designing Dialog Boxes

Dialog boxes should be designed to clearly identify the information that the user is required to complete. The following are a few Common User Access* guidelines:

• Lay out the controls in columns, starting at the upper-left corner, for left-to-right or top-to-bottom scanning.
  
• Vertically and horizontally align selection and entry fields so that the cursor moves in a straight line.
  
• Arrange the controls in the sequence in which the user would complete them.
  
• If there are only a few entry fields, locate them at the top of the dialog box.
  
• Make groups of controls obvious by use of group boxes and white space.
  
• Align group boxes, where possible. Group boxes can be extended to the right to line up with other group boxes.
  
• Use field identifiers to identify the purpose of single and multiple groups of choices.