Deletion confirmation, an unnecessarily bad design

Have you regretted answering “Really delete this?” with yes?

“Are you sure?” Yes, of course. I rarely click the delete button by accident. Instead, I’m now used to just always clicking yes as a part of all my deletions.

But sometimes I then notice that I deleted the wrong thing. Great. So now the confirmation makes deleting take longer, but still does not prevent me from accidental deletion. This issue is described in Don Norman’s book The Design of Everyday Things (ISBN 978-0-465-05065-9, pp. 203–204).

How to fix it

Do not ask for confirmation. Offer undo.

Some services already do this. After deletion, they typically show a little box with an undo button for a short while. Deleting this way is quick and easy, and if I delete something by accident, no worries, I restore it immediately.