Re: [Usability] Using nouns or verbs for the disclosure widgets

[Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt myrealbox com>]

On Jun 6, 2006, at 8:01 AM, Sebastian Heinlein wrote:
> ...
> would you recommend to use a noun for the disclosure widgets e.g.
> "Details" or verbs e.g. "Show details"/"Hide details"?
> ...

Hi Sebastian

I suggest making the label a summary of the values of the disclosed 
controls, if practical, not just a description. "Details" is the least 
informative example of a description, and may be appropriate if you 
want the expander to be very unobtrusive. But a more informative label 
may reduce the need for people to expand the section at all. For 
example,

    |> Progress details

which expands to
    __
    \/ Progress details

       Time remaining: about 11 minutes
             Progress: 15 of 29 items
              Copying: vilanova_presentation.ogg
                 Size: 10.0 MB of 45.0 MB

is much less useful than

    |> Time remaining: about 11 minutes

which expands to
    __
    \/ Time remaining: about 11 minutes

             Progress: 15 of 29 items
              Copying: vilanova_presentation.ogg
                 Size: 10.0 MB of 45.0 MB

Conversely, a more informative label may give a clue of unusual things 
that you set accidentally, or that you set long ago and then forgot 
about. For example:
    __
    \/ Custom style sheet (2 rules active)
     __________________________________________________________
    |:link, :visited {text-decoration: underline !important}   |
    |a[href^="javascript:"] {color: green !important}          |
    |                                                          |
    |__________________________________________________________|

Switching between "Show Foo" and "Hide Foo" would make the function of 
the control more obvious, but it would also make the label jump around 
between collapsed and expanded states. It also would result in ugly 
repetition where several expander controls were next to each other.

    For example, repeating "Show"      Printing the heading for each
    in a formatting palette would      expandable area by itself is
    look nasty:                        much easier to scan:
     ___________________________        ___________________________
    |(X)     Formatting      (-)|      |(X)     Formatting      (-)|
    |___________________________|      |___________________________|
    |_>_Show_Font_Settings______|      |_>_Font____________________|
    |_>_Show_Paragraph_Settings_|      |_>_Paragraph_______________|
    |_>_Show_List_Settings______|      |_>_List____________________|
    |_>_Show_Border_Settings____|      |_>_Border__________________|
    |_>_Show_Page_Settings______|      |_>_Page____________________|

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