When designing a form I have the option of putting a close button at the bottom of the form. The form will also have a close form “x” button in the upper right corner of the window as provided by winforms.
Based on the principle of “There should be one and preferably only one obvious way to do it” I was thinking the close button should be removed because of the forms existing default functionality.
What have the rest of you found in your experience that works best for users or has been the standard for UI setup?
I have done a considerable amount of design work, and I can’t say I have heard of the principle of, “There should be one way to do [some task].” In fact, I have heard (almost) the opposite: “There should always be one obvious way to do a task, but additional methods could be used to help different user types.” An example of this is the ability to hit the “Save” button to save a document. But, you can also do “File > Save” and you can also hit Ctrl + S. Three ways to do the same task.
Also, if you’re programming in a Windows environment (as it appears you are), you will automatically get multiple ways of closing a window. The [X], of course, Alt + F4 is typical, you can setup Ctrl + C, etc. I wouldn’t particularly put a close button on the bottom of the form unless it flows with the form’s input. For example, if you want to [Submit] or [Close] the form – does that make sense? Would it be better to [Submit] or [Cancel]? Think about what your users are doing and how they are using the form.