I'm Michael Suodenjoki - a software engineer living in Kgs. Lyngby, north of Copenhagen, Denmark. This is my personal site containing my blog, photos, articles and main interests.
I'm Michael Suodenjoki - a software engineer living in Kgs. Lyngby, north of Copenhagen, Denmark. This is my personal site containing my blog, photos, articles and main interests.
Updated 2011.01.23 15:37 +0100 |
In my job I do have experience in producing technical documentation and more user guide oriented documentation. So I do have an interest in following the trends in this area and to improve my skills. The aim of this blogpost is to begin a series of posts containing my gathered information in the area of technical writing.
A good place to find information for technical writers is the TECHWR-L website or the HATT group at yahoo.com.
When I find something interesting it does not always end up immediately on my website. Instead I've logged it as an unread email in my mailbox. Then at a later point, when time permits, I look through my unread mails and maybe this will trigger a blogpost.
One such email from November 2008 contained a link to the blogpost Press, Click, Select or Choose?!? by Mel Sampat - a program manager at Microsoft.
I distinctively remember why I found this blogpost interesting. Namely the question of how you in a user guide should write a how to section in where the reader/user should activate a particular button, e.g. the OK button. There are several possibilities:
In the user guide documentation that I've participated in we more or less use all of the above variants - hardly not consistent, and is most likely a result of the fact that several writers have participated without a common guideline (standard) on the matter.
Lets examine the advantages and disadvantages of each of these expressions.
| Expression | Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|---|
| Click | Active/specific action verb. Is normally quite easy to understand for the reader/user. | Implies that using the mouse is the only means of activating the OK button. Users should understand that by clicking is usually meant left clicking with the mouse on the button. |
| Left click | Even more specific. | Implies that using the mouse is the only means of activating the OK button. Left hand users may be confused as the mouse buttons are reversed, so Left Click should really be Right Click. |
| Select | Does not actively give any information about how to select it, as there can be several ways (mouse, keyboard, touch, etc) | Is not that specific. Some readers/users may not know what to do. How do I select it? Also many commands requires selecting something - other UI elements (objects) - before activating a button, so using select for the button as well may be confusing. |
| Push | May imply use of the keyboard or touch screen. | |
| Press | May imply use of the keyboard or touch screen | |
| Choose | Does not actively give any information about how to select it, as there can be several ways (mouse, keyboard, touch, etc) | Implies there are several things to choose from. If there is only one button this may seem ridiculous. |
| Activate | Does not actively give any information about how to activate it, as there can be several ways (mouse, keyboard, touch, etc) | Is not that specific. Some readers/users may not know what to do. How do I activate it? |
As you can see it is not that easy to choose the right wording. Personally I prefer the use of Activate as of today there are many ways that UI element or command can be activated.
However I think that the most important rule is to be consistent in your technical writing.
What do you prefer? Can you explain why?
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