Re: [Usability] Quicky review of Seahorse encryption key manager

[Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt myrealbox com>]

On Sep 14, 2006, at 1:52 PM, Nate Nielsen wrote:
> Alan Horkan wrote:
> ...
> > The first dialog includes the following labels on the Tabs:
> > "My Personal Keys"
> > "Keys I trust"
> > "Keys I've Collected"
> ...
> > More appropriate labels would be:
> > "Personal Keys"
> > "Trusted Keys"
> > "Collected Keys".
>
> I've changed all but the first tab label. As Murray pointed out
> "Personal Keys" is ambiguous. I'm all out of ideas on this one, ie: How
> to remove the 'my' but still convey:
>
>  * They're keys I've created. My very own keys. Only for me.
>  * These aren't the keys of people I feel 'personal' about.
>
> The concepts behind encryption (and PGP in particular) are so confusing
> for people than being unambiguous is necessary in the labels.

I think this is the right approach. I'd go so far as to say that "Keys 
You Trust" is better than "Trusted Keys", and "Keys You've Collected" 
better than "Collected Keys", because they answer the vital question: 
"By whom?"

(And yes, I would say "You've" rather than "You Have". Contractions 
aren't excessively informal, and allowing space for longer translations 
shouldn't be used as an excuse to make the English unnecessarily long.)

Whether to use "you"/"your" or "me"/"my" to refer to the person using 
the computer is tricky, but I try to follow the rule: "you"/"your" for 
headings and instructions (such as these tabs), "me"/"my" for controls 
that express the user's intent (such as checkboxes and buttons).

> ...
> For example one thing you'll notice once you install seahorse is that
> there are check boxes and descriptions that have to do with trust which
> look like:
>
>  [x] I have verified that this key belongs to who it says it does.
>  [x] I trust signatures on other keys made with this key.
>
> These are in a sort of contract or 'legal form' wording on purpose. 
> This helps convey the weight, effects, and idea behind the action 
> properly.
> ...

These are fine, except that checkbox labels shouldn't end with periods. 
:-) (You might also want to shorten "verified that" to "checked", and 
"who it says it does" to the actual name used in the key.)

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