Re: Two-words and one-words GUI elements

[Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt myrealbox com>]

On Apr 25, 2008, at 4:25 PM, Shaun McCance wrote:
> On Thu, 2008-04-24 at 23:24 +0100, Matthew Paul Thomas wrote:
> ...
> > Where you absolutely must refer to a control by type, I suggest using
> > "check/uncheck the ... box" for checkboxes and "click the ... button"
> > for radio buttons.
>
> Interesting that you and Calum, both usability guys, instinctively 
> went with check and uncheck as verbs, while every style guide out 
> there explicitly says not to do this.
> ...

It could be a blind spot on our part because we're so familiar with the 
"checkbox" term.

Perhaps the best way to answer this question would be to run a user 
test where people have to check/uncheck a checkbox (in a non-contrived 
situation), and prompt them to tell you what they're doing. But that 
kind of test seems unlikely to happen, since anyone with the resources 
to do user testing has so many more important things to test. :-)

--
Matthew Paul Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/