I was looking for some stuff about HTML forms and such and came across this interesting take on “reset” buttons; specifically, why they should not be used:

The extra choice requires extra thinking, and the time saved by using an optimal interaction technique is often smaller than the time wasted on having to think instead of just moving ahead with a single interaction technique that is always used. It takes at least one second and often two seconds to decide between two possible interaction techniques which is why it is usually better not to offer users a choice. (A second may not seem like much, but it translates into about $100 million in lost productivity per year world-wide.)

And it's true: people are everywhere wasting time thinking about things, and therefore things are not done and money fails to be made. A serious problem, because each year hundreds of trillions of dollars are just not being made. I didn't make a hefty sum myself, to be honest. But at least I wasn't thinking.

Some of these people, you know, they're not only thinking—they're sometimes even indulging in “extra thinking”.

Labels: Time Wasters