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Shauna Iannone wonders: <<On a user interface I work with, there is a
"framing" screen consisting of a series of buttons along the left side, and
a blank field in which the screens themselves appear. Click on a button, and
the first screen of that functional track appears. Usually buttons on the
individual screens lead to other screens that replace the original in the
field of the framing screen. And then, on two particular screens, another
series of buttons stretches across the top of the screen, and serves to
toggle the body of the screen (not counting the screen footer, which has the
Cancel button)
among five different combinations. Each one is completely different, and has
it's own controls, functions, etc., -- it is effectively just a whole screen
that happens to appear within another screen. It is an object of its own
accord, to be described as such in the documentation. Now, the only word
I've encountered to describe each of these screens is
"sub-screen", because it *is* subordinate to the screen it's in, which is
itself subordinate to the "framing" screen behind it. The buttons across the
top do not appear anything like tabs, so I'm concerned my end users
(machinery operators) won't understand what I mean if I refer to them as
"tabs" or "tabbed screens". Are there any other terms anyone can think of
that would possibly be clearer?>>
Not the most elegant of interfaces, but you're probably stuck with it. Given
that's the case, opt for simplicity. It sounds like you really have only
three things you need to describe:
1. "Controls" or "Task selection controls" or something similar: the buttons
along the left side that control what appears within the screen.
2. The "screen" itself: the part that holds all the information or buttons
they'll use once they've selected the appropriate screen using the controls.
3. Buttons: Any additional buttons inside the screen.
Rather than inventing terminology to describe subscreens and subcontrols, it
might be simplest to just use these three terms after defining them once:
Click the Management button to display the Management screen, then use the
Print, Sort, and Give Up buttons to determine what kind of management you
want to do." <g> Use them consistently and readers should have no trouble
learning this convention.
--Geoff Hart, FERIC, Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
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