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I was wondering how do we rewrite this sentence in a nicer way:

This webapp makes me hit the "Cancel" button unwantedly, arghh!

I was wondering what's a good synonym for the word "unwantedly". I'd remember that there's a word but it somehow ran off my mind.

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  • Do mean that the app makes it possible for you to hit the Cancel button by accident -- or that the app forces you to hit the Cancel button when you don't want to?
    – slim
    Commented Jan 3, 2012 at 15:05
  • @slim yes it makes it possible for me to hit the Cancel button by accident when I wanted to submit the form instead (it shouldn't do this if it follows the guidelines of good usability ux.stackexchange.com ).
    – Pacerier
    Commented Jan 3, 2012 at 15:19
  • OK, so to answer a question you didn't ask: it would have been clearer to use a phrase such as "encourages me to" or "leads me to" or "makes it too easy for me to", rather than "makes me". Because "makes me" is very close to "forces me to".
    – slim
    Commented Jan 3, 2012 at 16:28

2 Answers 2

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Most people would probably say accidentally, but personally I'd be likely to use inadvertently in most similar contexts.

In this exact context, the intention is to place the "blame" for the error on the design of the webapp, rather than the user's carelessness. Personally I feel that inadvertently doesn't do that quite so well as erroneously, by mistake, or mistakenly, all of which seem to me more capable of implying that the user was "led astray" rather than inherently incompetent.

If "Cancel" button is misleadingly labelled/displayed, and the user instantly realises he's selected the wrong thing as soon he clicks, it might be reasonable to say unwittingly.

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  • In some other contexts, I would use involuntarily or unintentionally. "Long words are involuntarily expand narrow HTML table columns." (I'm not a native speaker.)
    – john c. j.
    Commented Jan 2, 2021 at 19:18
  • By the way, what is the difference between "inadvertantly" (your's spelling) and "inadvertently" (the spelling by user2683)?
    – john c. j.
    Commented Jan 2, 2021 at 19:21
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    I guess the main difference is my's spelling is incorrect! :) Or was - thanks for flagging it up so I could fix it!
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jan 3, 2021 at 12:01
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You can use the word inadvertently.

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  • Snap! Though I have a vague suspicion there ought to be a form of words emphasising the fact that the design of the webapp encourages the error, as opposed to the user simply being inherently careless.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jan 3, 2012 at 14:58
  • It didn't occur to me that "inadvertently" was what he was after - but you could be right. I can't think of an adverb that would let him use that sentence structure for "The application forces me to press Cancel when I don't want to".
    – slim
    Commented Jan 3, 2012 at 15:04

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