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Subject:RE: Madelyn's request for touchscreen verbs From:"Blount, Patricia A" <Patricia -dot- Blount -at- ca -dot- com> To:<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Wed, 31 Dec 2008 09:31:00 -0500
Hi,
I read today's digest with great interest because this falls into some
earlier discussions seen on list about language evolution and 'made up
words', etc.
Touchscreen technology isn't really that new. I remember playing with
touchscreen ATMs, kiosks and other devices at least twenty years ago.
But it is becoming much more ubiquitous and as such, people may feel the
need to devise some new word to describe using it so that, as one poster
suggested, instructions inherently convey to users what device is
intended. To my mind, at least, 'click' implies the mouse, 'press'
implies the keyboard, 'select' or 'choose' mean I should open menus or
fill out dialog boxes...I just bought a new programmable universal
remote control. This is NOT touchscreen, as I thought it was. I thought
it was because the instructions said "Touch the desired activity" - what
it meant was that I should press the button next to the activity
displayed on the screen.
Tap - In the late '80's into the '90s, I used my first touchpad instead
of a mouse. Its instructions said, "To double-click, tap the pad twice."
3M also used the word 'tap' with its Palm devices.
To get around your foot-procedure issue, you could add a blurb in your
introduction unit that explains the conventions used in your guide. Some
years ago, I had to do this to distinguish between the Microsoft Windows
Start button and the application's Start button. Perhaps this:
'Throughout this guide, all references to 'tap' mean you should tap the
touch screen. Where tapping the foot pedal is meant, it is explicitly
stated.'
Touch - There is nothing wrong with this word. The device is called a
Touchscreen, isn't it? For that reason alone, I would use this word
because everything I've learned from reading Donald Norman books compels
me to make instruction as intuitive as possible. If the thing is called
a touchscreen, it makes me think I should 'touch the screen'.
The conference rooms at my company are wired with touchscreens that
control the lighting, the viewscreen and the AV equipment. The first
thing users see when they approach the unit: 'Touch anywhere on the
screen to power on'.
I would avoid 'choose' and 'select' because they do suggest options.
Synonyms like 'pat', 'finger', 'point', and so on are much less
intuitive than 'touch'.
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