Re: [Usability] The use of ellipsis (...) in menus

[Steve Hall <digitect mindspring com>]

On Wed, 2006-03-15 at 22:01 +0100, Sergej Kotliar wrote:

[Three dots following a menu item to indicate further information
required before acting--this convention is not followed consistently
in GNOME]

> So - what to do about these little things, that have been around since
> the days of Win3.1 (and probably much earlier)? As I see it, there's
> three ways to go:
> 
> * Remove them completely. State in the HIG that they shouldn't be
>   used. 
> * Define more clearly exactly when they should be used, and file
>   bugs for each app and occasion of wrongful use. This will probably
>   result in quite a lot of bugs
> * Do nothing. Status quo remains.
> 
> What I think (and this is where I say I'm in no means an expert in
> the area), it that we should go with removing them entirely from the
> GNOME HIG, and GNOME itself. 

Please no! For simple items like SaveAs that we've all learned over
the years and pretty much know what to expect, having the ellipsis is
not needed only because we know a dialog will be required to complete
the action.

But for items that the user is less experienced with, correct
implementation of this convention adds to the user's confidence. For
example, if you see "File Format...", even though you don't know what
it does, the dots tell you that you will get a dialog that may shed
more information on it. And if that dialog has been designed
correctly, you can pick Cancel without having affected anything.

> My reasons for this are the following:
> 
> * Most people don't notice them, and aren't helped by them.

I disagree, I think they provide subtle feedback that the user may
intuit even without being able to verbalize it. (I did.)

> * The people that do notice them might be confused by them.
> * They are probably not translatable into all languages.

Three periods is acceptable if "…" (0x2026) isn't available.

> * They waste space (both disk space, and screen space)

Hardly, and the payback is significant.

> * The use of the ellipsis is totally inconsistent between apps, and
>   largely depend on the author. Sometimes it's even inconsistent
>   within an app itself. 

Broken apps and interface don't excuse proper design.

> * The use of three dots to indicate a dialog opening seems rather
>   oldfashioned - can't we have something better now?

If it isn't broken, why tamper with it?

> * In some cases, they hinder the reuse of the same string for
>   multiple purposes, causing extra translation work.

I'd be curious what conventions other languages use to imply this
meaning, ellipses are certainly western. How about for right-to-left
languages?

> If people really feel that they do in fact fill some purpose,
> shouldn't there at least be some kind of icon or something that is
> international to indicate the opening of a new window?

Perhaps. A symbol like an arrow pointing to a dialog would jump over
the language barrier. But these would be all over every menu, not
exactly the overhead they're worth.

> What do you people think? Am I totally off here? 
> 
> 
> Best regards
> Sergej Kotliar
> 
> PS: please CC me, cause I'm not subscribed to this list.

Will do.



-- 
Steve Hall  [ digitect mindspring com ]