Question

In iOS, I have some modal scenes that dismiss with a “Done” button in a toolbar.

But one of those modal scenes includes an editable UITableView. So I also have a standard Edit button (in a NavBar). While Editing, that button is renamed “Done” (and highlighted in blue).

Now there are two buttons labeled “Done” that do two very different things. I could rename the dismisser to “Cancel”, but that seems like a non-standard usage. And it would be at odds with the other scenes (that don’t involve editing), which dismiss via a “Done” button.

Is there a Human Interface recommendation? What’s the “cleanest” solution?

Answer 1

The easiest solution is that your “Done” (dismiss) button is not displayed while editing, so that it looks like this:

Not editing: ….[Edit][Done] <- (Done-dismiss)

Editing: …………..[Done] <- (Done-editing)

Another thing you can do is set the “Done” (editing) button on the left side (as well as hiding the “Done” (dismiss) button), so that the user notices it’s a different type of “Done”

Note: From a UX point of view, showing two “Done” buttons that look identical on the same view at the same time is very wrong, even if they are in different positions