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Subject:Re: CUI terminology From:Ben Kovitz <apteryx -at- CHISP -dot- NET> Date:Mon, 26 Oct 1998 17:41:56 -0700
Ruth Kiner-Cola asked:
>Can anyone recommend a good Character User Interface (CUI) terminology book.
>I'm working with developers who insist on calling various commands at the
>bottom of a character-mode screen "buttons." We've had several good-natured
>discussions, but they continue to give me this "RCA-dog" look when I tell
>them that a "button" is an OOP term solely of the GUI domain. They're
>making me crazy.
I don't think there is any distinct set of terminology for GUI-like doodads
in a character-only interface. We should probably be grateful for that.
If I understand the thing you're referring to correctly, and they function
like buttons in a GUI, then it's not surprising or unreasonable that people
call them buttons. I might not be thinking of the same thing you mean,
though. Do people click these things with a mouse and/or by tabbing to
them and hitting space or return, or is this not even a pseudo-GUI rendered
in text?
Regardless of that, here's a recommendation: try one or two of these
screens on some users (not programmers, unless the software is for
programmers), giving them only a list of tasks and no documentation, and
see what they call these mysterious things. You stay silent during this
experiment; just let them talk to each other while you listen and learn.
If the users call them buttons, then they'll probably know what you mean if
you call them buttons in the manual. If the users invent some awful or
particularly idiosyncratic terminology, then you'll have to make up
something better. In that case, try using your terminology in conversation
with a couple users and see if they understand what you mean with no
explanation. If they don't get it or it seems awkward *to them*, then
think up something else and try again.
If it's difficult or expensive to get hold of real users (still typical in
this industry), try the screens out on people in your company who don't
have anything to do with software development, like people in the
accounting department or HR. Or try them on friends or children.
P.S. GUI stuff is user-interface stuff. OOP is programming stuff.
Buttons are part of the interface. Programming is what makes the computer
draw the buttons and do stuff when people click and move the mouse in
certain ways. No wonder you're getting some strange looks (though more
often it's programmers who think of everything in the whole world as an
"instantiation" of OOP).
