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

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2006 13:14:30 +0100 (BST)
From: Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>
Cc: Usability gnome conference <usability gnome org>
Subject: Re: [Usability] Quicky review of Seahorse encryption key manager


On Sat, 16 Sep 2006, Matthew Paul Thomas 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.)

We can make excuses all day long but it sends mixed messages to use
abbrevations sometimes and then try to explain later not to use
exceptions.  A clear consistent rule not to use abbreviations is less
confusing than saying it is sometimes okay.

Non-native English speakers often find themselves using the English
translation so clarity should be maximized.

This is a largely cosmetic change, and there may well be a better way to
fundamentally reorganise things and change how they are presented.  If the
English labels are unnecessarily long they would need to be reworded,
abbreviations have nothing to do with it so to characterise the issue as
"an excuse to make the English unnecessarily long" is wrong and an
entirely misleading attempt to reframe the arguement.

It took Microsoft a decade to drop their overuse of the "My" prefix and
we should know better than to take their Vista guidelines at face value.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

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