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Subject:Re: What to call them? From:Becca Price <becca_price -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 22 Jan 2001 12:24:12 -0800 (PST)
*sigh* You are right, of course, Geoff - and my job is to make
the manual more task-oriented and user-focused -- as long as it
doesn't change the product, I suspect. I think that the
solution you propose in your last paragraph, of treating them
separately even though they're used in the same way makes the
most sense. <grumble, grumble. wry smile>
>
> The question should be what the users of these products will
> call them:
> "objects" may be technically correct, but if it doesn't match
> the user's
> terminology, then you've failed to communicate. In effect,
> you're being so
> technically correct that yo're no longer speaking in terms the
> reader
> understands. <snip>
> Realistically, you may be unable to persuade the
> developers to
> make this change. In that case, you should probably call five
> of them
> "objects" (since they appear under the "Objects" menu), and
> call the
> remaining one an "Activity" (since it appears under the
> activities menu).
> These may be a poor choice of names from the perspective of
> the users or
> common sense, but at least it relates the names strongly to
> the interface,
> and that's arguably every bit as important.
There's no such thing as useless information, only information for which you haven't found a use yet.
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