Re: [Usability] application names in the application menu

[Karl Lattimer <karl qdh org uk>]

On 29 Mar 2008, at 20:38, daniel g. siegel wrote:

> On Sa, 2008-03-29 at 12:27 +0000, Calum Benson wrote:
> > On 28 Mar 2008, at 17:30, daniel g. siegel wrote:
> > > now i learned, that it was very confusing to have names like  
> > > nautilus,
> > > epiphany, cheese for a guy, who hears those names for the first
> > > time. so
> > > it would be better to have menu entries like "Texteditor" (gedit) or
> > > "Document viewer" (evince). but then, who would know how the
> > > application
> > > should be called? how could he then submit a bug report to _that_
> > > program? how can the person find the projects website on a search
> > > engine? is a program name senseless?
> >
> > The HIG is fairly clear about the wording of Applications menu  
> > entries
> > and tooltips::
> >
> > <http://library.gnome.org/devel/hig-book/stable/desktop-application-menu.html.en#menu-item-functional-description
> > >
> >
> > <http://library.gnome.org/devel/hig-book/stable/desktop-application-menu.html.en#menu-item-tooltips
> > >
> >
> > Historically, when we wrote the HIG we originally wanted all the core
> > GNOME desktop apps to have functional names only, to alleviate some  
> > of
> > this confusion.  Thus there would be no "gedit", no "nautilus", no
> > "epiphany"; only the GNOME "text editor", "file manager" and "web
> > browser".
> >
> > However, some maintainers (not necessarily the ones I just mentioned,
> > FWIW-- I can't actually remember which ones now) saw this as an
> > erosion of their project's identity, and weren't willing to make this
> > change.  So we came to the uneasy compromise of having the functional
> > name on the menu, but allowing the project name in the application  
> > and
> > its documentation.  This undoubtedly does confuse some users.
> >
> > In summary, now that you're a core desktop application and there are
> > no other core applications with a similar function, your menu entry
> > should not include the word "Cheese".  It should be something like
> > "Webcam Snapshot" (I'm sure we can do better than that, I haven't
> > really woken up yet!), and the tooltip something like "Take photos  
> > and
> > videos directly from an attached camera".  You can use the name
> > "Cheese" in the application itself, and in the documentation if  
> > that's
> > what the current docs guidelines allow, but preferably no more than
> > necessary.
>
> i can do that without a problem, BUT i would like to have that
> "standarized" over the GNOME desktop. i thought about the 3 things we
> use at the moment and i came up with this:
>
> [application name] (e.g. cheese)
>  + strong identity for the application
>  - confusing for people
>
> [application name] [short description] (e.g. f-spot photo manager)
>  + enhances the projects identity
>  + gives an idea what the application is about
>  - the application name is confusing for people
>  - looses its romance (unreal tournament vs. unreal tournament first  
> person shooter game)
>
> [short description] (e.g. text editor)
>   + gives an idea what the application is about
>  - probably not easy to find?
>  - the project could loose its identity and finding the project page  
> or
>    bugs page could be more difficult for users
>  - if several applications, which do the same are installed, this
>    creates confusion, e.g. firefox and epiphany
>
> now the HIG suggests to use [application name] [short description]
> or [short description] if this is possible. could we agree to  
> just use
> one of those three mentioned or at least do the same?

This issue is also discussed here,

http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=426196

and has been discussed previously on desktop-devel, the issue doesn't  
appear to want to go away.

My thoughts are that the gnome main menu as it currently stands does  
not work for both cases of unfamiliar users and application brand.

Brand identity is just as important as the new user case, therefore we  
should be using the GenericName tag in the .desktop files and find a  
way to incorporate both Name and GenericName into the menu items.

The patch provided in that bug allows us to edit the GenericName tags  
from the panel-ditem-editor which is at the very least a start to  
correctly using the GenericName tag as the fd.o spec suggests.

The conflict between the intended use in the fd.o spec and the  
implementation in GNOME is causing this issue to rear its head quite  
regularly.

regards,
 K,