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Yours vs. Mine

dcurt.is

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Re: Yours vs. Mine

#91

Post by coldtea »

kyro wrote: post #63
thejerz wrote: post #48

Ready? This is going to blow your mind... NEITHER. Just say "Purchases" or "Bookmarks." Not yours, not mine, not his, not hers. Just "it." Now, get back to writing code!

This is a really dismissive comment that could be used to trivialize just about any article and debate here on HN. While it isn't a big issue, this topic is something designer's do think about and a discussion about its effects on user experience seems reasonable. Plus I doubt anyone's losing hours of productivity over this.

>This is a really dismissive comment that could be used to trivialize just about any article and debate here on HN.

Well, thinking in a false binary, when there are far more choices, as the article does, already trivialises the subject matter.

Re: Yours vs. Mine

#92

Post by jalfresi »

Interesting analysis, though personally I sit firmly in the camp that software are tools and as such should not express a "personality" or attempt to provide an "experience". For me, this suggests that straight nouns should be used for this sort of thing i.e "Profile" rather than "(Your|My) Profile".

My power drill doesn't refer to the chuck as "Your/My chuck". My toaster doesn't refer to to the bread as "Your/My bread" and my car doesn't refer to "your/my door is ajar".

Re: Yours vs. Mine

#93

Post by nakodari »

I have to disagree. The usage depends on what you are referring to. If it is the user's files, then saying "My Uploads" is preferred over "Your Uploads". Saying "My" shows the users that it is their files, therefore, they have full control over their files and they can do whatever they wish with them.

Re: Yours vs. Mine

#94

Post by charliepark »

vitalique wrote: post #74
lotharbot wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how about "view archive" and "send to archive"?

This is the proper approach, I suppose. I don't use images for button labels in Gmail's interface myself, but I'm pretty sure that properly designed icons + tooltips with verbs (for both icons and textual labels) can be used quite effectively to differentiate between verbs and nouns: 'arrows' icons as verbs for moving stuff, 'boxes' images as nouns for storage places, 'tools' as verbs for some particular actions asso…

Rather than the language used, perhaps the interface would give the proper contextual cue:

* Use a button interface for all actions the user can take: [send][archive].

* Use a link for nouns / places the user can go: inbox | archive | trash.

* Icons tend to be actions (a star for 'mark this as a favorite', a trash can for 'delete this thing', a paper+pencil for 'edit this entry'), so they get grouped more with the buttons.

Re: Yours vs. Mine

#95

Post by s_kilk »

Kerrick wrote: post #65
thejerz wrote: post #48

Ready? This is going to blow your mind... NEITHER. Just say "Purchases" or "Bookmarks." Not yours, not mine, not his, not hers. Just "it." Now, get back to writing code!

That works fine for links and buttons, but what about microcopy?

Microcopy generally takes the form of a speaking voice which addresses the User directly, so a phrase like "Are you sure you want to delete this Customer?" makes more sense than "Am I sure I want to delete this Customer?". And so forth.

Re: Yours vs. Mine

#96

Post by kaybe »

thejerz wrote: post #58
scottmagdalein wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where this simplicity breaks down is when you have two kinds of a thing. For example, a user may have documents shared by a group and then documents that are yours/mine. Honestly, I still feel it's an overwrought discussion about something that ultimately doesn't effect the user enough to change their general perception of the product.

So, call the one Documents, and call the other Shared Documents. This ≠ rocket science.

I'm pretty sure rocket science has a standard for stuff like this. There is a standard for everything.

http://www.ecss.nl/

Re: Yours vs. Mine

#97

Post by olliesaunders »

jtheory wrote: post #90
olliesaunders wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good UI design is all about effective communication. If you have a UI that is pretending to be something it isn’t (a person) then it is basically lying to you. That’s hardly good communication. It’s confusing and dishonest. And believe it or not there are some users who won’t understand that it isn’t really a person. Some minds are very prone to anthropomorphizing especially when they are dealing with something they…

"Having a personality" is going to happen whatever you do. Somewhat counterintuitively, this doesn't mean your interface pretends it's a person; but all copy is written by people -- words are used by people only (pretty much), directly or indirectly -- and the words chosen are projecting some personality onto the application whether you want to or not. There are no words/phrases/instructions without baggage, connotat…

I have no objection to that. I just don’t want those words written by people to make it sound like the application is a person. The app can talk about itself doing things (it does do things after all) but not as a human being with feelings and stuff.

Re: Yours vs. Mine

#98

Post by amirmc »

Silhouette wrote: post #81
thejerz wrote: post #48

Ready? This is going to blow your mind... NEITHER. Just say "Purchases" or "Bookmarks." Not yours, not mine, not his, not hers. Just "it." Now, get back to writing code!

That's the kind of dismissive attitude that kills web companies. If there's one thing we've learned from usability research, A/B testing and the like, it's that seemingly subtle changes in details can make a huge difference to overall effectiveness. And if there's a second thing we've learned, it's that what programmers or web developers assume is best is a lousy indicator of what is best when you actually measure re…

Nothing in the OP refers to A/B testing, Usability testing or in fact any kind of testing. At all.

Re: Yours vs. Mine

#99

Post by Strang »

I know this is only tangentially related, but this has always annoyed me in Windows. For example, "My Pictures" does not contain my pictures. My photos are in c:\photos.

And it gets worse with every Windows release. The standard file dialog in Windows 7 is absolutely ridiculous. There is a tree on the left, with absolutely worthless (to me) entries: Desktop, Favorites, Recent Places, My Photos, My Documents, etc., etc. The actual hard drive navigation is at the very bottom, and usually requires scrolling.

A sane navigation tree would just be a list of volumes.

Re: Yours vs. Mine

#100

Post by Silhouette »

amirmc wrote: post #98
Silhouette wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the kind of dismissive attitude that kills web companies. If there's one thing we've learned from usability research, A/B testing and the like, it's that seemingly subtle changes in details can make a huge difference to overall effectiveness. And if there's a second thing we've learned, it's that what programmers or web developers assume is best is a lousy indicator of what is best when you actually measure re…

Nothing in the OP refers to A/B testing, Usability testing or in fact any kind of testing. At all.

That's irrelevant. There are multiple reasonable possibilities here. Saying "Do X, now get on with coding" as if X is somehow obviously the right answer is a very dangerous attitude. The original article might not have mentioned those kinds of testing explicitly, but still, professionals decide among various choices being considered based on merit, not personal preference.
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