[esc] should not (seemingly) discard your bug

Originator:igeek1
Number:rdar://15891713 Date Originated:23-Jan-2014 10:58 AM
Status:Open Resolved:
Product:Bug Reporter Product Version:Safari 7.0.1 (9537.73.11)
Classification:UI/Usability Reproducible:Always
 
Summary:
When adding a new bug at radar.apple.com, pressing the [esc] key goes back from the "New Bug Reporter Problem" page to the "Select a product" page. The current bug is not discarded, but that's not apparent in a world of webmail clients and wiki editors that throw away your text if you accidentally click the Back button.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Go to bugreport.apple.com and sign in.
2. Click the "New" button to file a new bug.
3. Choose a category, for example, "Bug Reporter"
4. Start typing.
5. Type a weird word, and wait for the OS X autocorrect popup to appear, or do anything else that would lead you to:
6. Press [esc] to dismiss the popup, because you really did want to spell it liek taht.

Expected Results:
The spelling correction popup is dismissed.

Actual Results:
The popup is dismissed, but the page also changes so the text you were typing is gone, and you're back on the "Select a product" page. Your text is still there, and if you choose the same (or a different) category, you are returned to your bug. However, there is no indication that your text was saved, and the uninformed user might assume that the bug was discarded, lose all respect they ever had for Apple, never end up filing the bug, and go to live in a hermit cave made out of Nexus 7s.

Version:
Safari 7.0.1 (9537.73.11)

Notes:
I would argue that [esc] should never navigate back in this case. It wouldn't be enough just to fix the spelling suggestion popup issue. It's too easy to hit esc accidentally if you're trying to dismiss some other popup, or if you're trying to hit F1 to change the screen brightness and you miss. It is slightly slower to go back if you pick the wrong category, but that is an edge case and I think the appearance of data loss would trump it.

Configuration:
Reproducible in Safari and Chrome on Mac. Chrome doesn't show the OS X spelling suggestion popup, but [esc] still exits the current text editing view.

Attachments:

Comments

I reopened it on 24-Jan-2014 05:22 PM with the following comment

There are two separate issues here: whether it works as designed, and whether the design is good.

Whether it works as designed: Alright, so you want the [esc] key to take you back. Fine. However, don't you agree that it should not take you back when you are using it to invoke the system-standard keyboard shortcut to dismiss a spelling suggestion popup? If you don't know what I'm talking about, let me know and I can post a screen recording. It is pretty clearly a software bug, either in bug reporter, Safari, or the OS X text system.

Whether the design is good: I would argue that it is not good design to navigate away from the bug composition page when the [esc] key is pressed. It seems like the only utility here is that if you clicked the wrong category, you can quickly navigate back to the chooser, and I would classify that as very much an edge case. What's the problem with it, you ask? Radar is where your most loyal customers, the ones who care the most about the quality of your software, get a direct line to the people who can fix problems. People spend hours carefully crafting bug reports, including reproducible test cases and screenshots. I know that pressing [esc] doesn't actually throw away all your hard-written text, but some users might not know that and, having accidentally pressed [esc] for some other reason, will just give up and not bother filing the bug at all. Even if they do recover it, it is annoying. Therefore, I would question the design of having the [esc] key navigate back.

By igeek1 at May 16, 2014, 7:14 p.m. (reply...)

Comment from Apple on 24-Jan-2014 11:27 AM:

Engineering has determined that this issue behaves as intended based on the following information:

This is a correct behavior as in Bug Reporter, if the user is in new problem screen and if "esc" key is pressed, then the user would taken back to select products page.

Please update your bug report to let us know if that resolves the issue for you.

By igeek1 at May 16, 2014, 7:14 p.m. (reply...)

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