Smart Warning Messages

Don’t you hate warning messages?  ”Are you sure you want to close _______?”  They always come up when yes, I’m certain I want to close that blank Word document, and yet they never seem to stand in the way of a late-night me dead set on data loss.  So here’s my solution, free to you loyal readers: make the warning depend on what’s at stake.

The basic problem is ubiquity.  When you get that message every. damn. time. you try to close a program, it loses meaning and you just automatically hit “OK.”  It only makes sense that when you’re closing a blank document, the program shouldn’t shout at you too much.  Likewise, when it’s 3AM and you accidentally hit “Exit” on the paper you’ve been working on all night, it should make a big deal about it.

So here’s what I want:

1. Threat level indicator bar on warning popup.
2. Close an application with little or no data loss?  No warning.
3. Close an app with a few minutes’ work lost?  Yes/No warning popup with threat level and info about exactly how much will be lost.  ”Are you sure you want to close articleblurb.doc?  87 words will be lost.”
4. Close an app with your entire unsaved thesis?  Serious deterrence.  I want it to require a root password, or at least make you do some arithmetic like the “Mail Goggles” Labs feature in Gmail.  There should be big red warning signs and messages like “WARNING.  26 PAGES OF UNSAVED DATA WILL BE PERMANENTLY ERASED.”