Mindful Buttons - Part I. Or My Grandma Has A Right to Understand My Work

The world didn’t know Internet at all 20 years ago. We are the third generation using it and working there. Compared to us, the first generation (1970-s) had no idea about. What concerns the living representatives of the previous generation (1950), most of them don’t use or don’t understand it nowadays.

But life became much easier after the Computer Age came. Why previous generations shouldn’t have right to use Web? And if they do want to make use of it – what problems do they face?..

So, beginning with such historical summary, I’d like to discuss with you actual and up-to-nowadays problem: language support by a certain internet service. This up-to-the-minute sphere is often considered to have only one language – the language of programming based on English which is hardly understandable for many and many beginners and amateurs. And, you know, it’s something more today, if Web is getting full of endless discussions about usability and so-called mindful operation of any system we use. And usability becomes more and more actual making giant steps in its development: just compare your cell phones you used in 90-s and modern cells. Do you feel the difference? Exactly. In my personal opinion, nowadays the role of human language in usability of any IT-system is still very low-estimated. Yes, the whole composition and algorithms of information and screens presentation is being improved not from day to day, but from hour to hour, as well as fighting with so-called “informational noise” by web-sites and services. Yes, it’s getting easier to find buttons we need on the screen, but what is written on a button? What does it mean and do you understand always that this button is exactly what you hope to see after? More often it depends on context facilitating to guess or feel intuitively that the phrase on the button is exactly what you wait to be shown or done after pressing it. But what should be the phrase look like to help you get rid of any hesitations and let even a Grandma uses it successfully?

Let’s go deeper into what requirements the button sets to its text contained:

-          the button has to attract people to press on it subconsciously and live up to expectations of the person pressing it. If the action caused by pressing is completely another thing compared to the one expected by a user, it will probably just disappoint him, provoke a little bit of annoyance and anyway – the user will be compelled to return back and start searching another button he needs for his operation wasting his time at that;

-          the text on the button should be as short as possible, because long buttons on your screen containing several phrases or sentences seem to be heavy and clumsy. In such way, the long button seems to make users hold back and make them read till the end the information placed on the button. But what is more terrible is that it loses subconscious element of the pressing action in this way making a user to think hard and process the information he were not going to work on and think about. In result this may cause much more irritation and clumsiness of any software, even very high-usability-ranked one;

-          but at the same time in general it turns out that a button carries much more information than even some sentences. Because there is a hidden meaning and symbolic image of some non-easy action or operation under it.

Let’s see the example.

In KommandCore you may see such button like “Actual” located on the right side of the “Overview” screen.

So, we need to make this button short and avoid clumsiness brought by a couple of sentences describing the meaning and destination of the operation this button causes.

And the meaning of the operation would be that pressing on this button you’ll see all the actual objects in your workspace list. At the same time it’s not possible to name the button like “Today”, because your list is likely to include objects from the previous days or even weeks, for example – current tasks: they are not created in that day, but they are actual for that day when you observe and use them. The same thing concerns other suchlike objects.

On the one hand, such operation like abovementioned is not very wide-spread in Web, and therefore, there are no some fixed patterns in buttons titles. And this fact makes the button named “Actual” is specific. It becomes less recognizable for users. On the other hand it wouldn’t be correct to use such titles like “Today” or “Active” even if they are more recognizable and understandable.

Finally, probably, what could resolve such situation is to be open for new and more convenient web-services: they are developed to meet the higher needs of customers and destined to facilitate more their daily activity, even if it turns out paradoxically that new and more difficult operations demand new definitions and titles for interface buttons.

The second thing is to choose the most understandable, correct definitions and titles for new buttons hiding more and more complicated operation in their background.