Re: [Usability] application names in the application menu

[Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt myrealbox com>]

Le vendredi 28 mars 2008 à 18:30 +0100, daniel g. siegel a écrit :
>...
> recently, i showed some pupils the gnome desktop and what i noticed
> was, that they even didnt know what "Cheese" meaned, or what program
> would open if he had clicked on it. this wasnt only on cheese, but
> also on epiphany, dasher, and others (some choose their name like
> "[name] [small description]", e.g. f-spot photo manager, which is
> more understandable, even if the program name doesnt make sense for a
> person, which is new to gnome). They just could figure it out, by
> interpreting the icon.
>...

If a program has a name obviously related to what it does, *or* lots of
marketing, you're fine. But if you're missing both, people will have
trouble working out what the program is for.

Programs that have both an obvious name, and lots of marketing:
Illustrator, Internet Explorer, iMovie, iPhoto, iTunes, Photoshop,
Windows Media Player, Word.

Programs that have lots of marketing, without an obvious name: Access,
Excel, Firefox, Opera, Outlook, Outlook Express, PowerPoint, QuickTime,
Safari.

Programs that have an obvious name, without lots of marketing:
Calculator, Dictionary, Inkscape, Interface Builder, Notepad,
OpenOffice.org, Photo Booth, Rhythmbox, TextEdit.

Programs that have neither: Banshee, Blam, Bluefish, Brasero, Cheese,
Claws, Dasher, Ekiga, Epiphany, Evolution, Exaile, Gimp, Glade,
Jokosher, Kino, Miro, Muine, Pitivi, Serpentine, Sound Juicer, Straw,
Synaptic, Tomboy.

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