Re: GUI issues

[Chuck <writer -at- BEST -dot- COM>]

That answer to this question, as it is to so many questions, is: it
depends.

Remember that users will have screens of different resolutions. While
some programmers deisgn parts of a GUI in absolute pixel dimentions,
others design parts relative to the size of a screen or a window. Users
can also override the standard fonts and choose their own for menu and
button titles, as well as elsewhere. some of the Windows color schemes
are designed with larger fonts.

Then there's translation/internationalization. Most languages take more
space than English to say the same thing. Is there room for that?

What do you need to communicate, and where? Are you trying to describe
one of several tightly packed widgets in a small dialog box? Are you
describing one or two choices in a relatively expansive Wizard dilog
box?

Setting rigid limits on verbage based on how much space is available in
an existing design is akin to programmers solving their problems by
designing around the difficulty of writing the code, not users' needs.

"Brierley, Sean" wrote:
<snip>
> What do you think is a reasonable limit on the number of words and
> characters used to label a GUI feature, such as a button, tab, text field,
> etc? Can anyone offer a reference tome on this (I couldn't find any info in
> the Windows Interface Guidelines for Software Design, but might have missed
> it)? I'm thinking along the lines of three words and 25 characters at most.
> Thoughts?
<snip>
--
"[Programmers] cannot successfully be asked to design for users
because...inevitably, they will make judgments based on the
difficult of coding and not on the user's real needs."
        - Alan Cooper
        "About Face: The Essentials of User Interface Design"

Chuck Martin
writer"at"best.com    www.writeforyou.com


 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=