---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2006 13:14:30 +0100 (BST) From: Alan Horkan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: Usability gnome conference <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Usability] Quicky review of Seahorse encryption key manager
On Sat, 16 Sep 2006, Matthew Paul Thomas wrote: > > Alan Horkan wrote: > > ... > >> The first dialog includes the following labels on the Tabs: > >> "My Personal Keys" > >> "Keys I trust" > >> "Keys I've Collected" > > ... > >> More appropriate labels would be: > >> "Personal Keys" > >> "Trusted Keys" > >> "Collected Keys". > > > > I've changed all but the first tab label. As Murray pointed out > > "Personal Keys" is ambiguous. I'm all out of ideas on this one, ie: How > > to remove the 'my' but still convey: > > > > * They're keys I've created. My very own keys. Only for me. > > * These aren't the keys of people I feel 'personal' about. > > > > The concepts behind encryption (and PGP in particular) are so confusing > > for people than being unambiguous is necessary in the labels. > > I think this is the right approach. I'd go so far as to say that "Keys > You Trust" is better than "Trusted Keys", and "Keys You've Collected" > better than "Collected Keys", because they answer the vital question: > "By whom?" > > (And yes, I would say "You've" rather than "You Have". Contractions > aren't excessively informal, and allowing space for longer translations > shouldn't be used as an excuse to make the English unnecessarily long.) We can make excuses all day long but it sends mixed messages to use abbrevations sometimes and then try to explain later not to use exceptions. A clear consistent rule not to use abbreviations is less confusing than saying it is sometimes okay. Non-native English speakers often find themselves using the English translation so clarity should be maximized. This is a largely cosmetic change, and there may well be a better way to fundamentally reorganise things and change how they are presented. If the English labels are unnecessarily long they would need to be reworded, abbreviations have nothing to do with it so to characterise the issue as "an excuse to make the English unnecessarily long" is wrong and an entirely misleading attempt to reframe the arguement. It took Microsoft a decade to drop their overuse of the "My" prefix and we should know better than to take their Vista guidelines at face value. Sincerely Alan Horkan Inkscape http://inkscape.org Abiword http://www.abisource.com Open Clip Art http://OpenClipArt.org _______________________________________________ Usability mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability
