Re: [Usability] HIG: Fixing the sort arrow direction guideline

[Andy Owen <andy-gnome-usability ultra-premium com>]

On Sun, 2009-05-17 at 08:58 -0400, Celeste Lyn Paul wrote: 
> For those who want to know more about this proposed change, here is a common 
> rational for the arrow position in Windows, Mac, and the web:
> 
> v users perceive arrow as bigger on top so the list should contain the 
> "biggest" items first (decreasing, e.g. reverse alpha, 10-1)
> 
> ^ users perceive arrow as smaller on top so the list should be sorted by the 
> "smallest" items first (increasing, e.g. alpha, 1-10)

Personally, I have always found the GNOME standard to make sense. I
perceive the triangle as an arrow telling me a direction. If it is
treated as a depiction of the actual items, then it feels un-natural
(e.g. an earlier date corresponds to a shorter bar, or a word at the end
of the alphabet corresponds to a longer bar). The idea of mapping the
smaller and larger concepts onto non-numerical things seems like the
sort of thing that makes complete sense to programmers, but is adding an
extra level of abstraction.

Obviously, this is a sample size of one, but I've never thought that the
symbol was unclear.

Andy