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Re: terminology help

Subject: Re: terminology help
From: "Susan W. Gallagher" <sgallagher5 -at- cox -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2002 12:06:11 -0700


Rosemary,

I wouldn't sweat the terminology of parent and child --
particularly for an in-house application where it can
be drummed into a user's head from day one. I isn't
that hard to take the concept from the kitchen (ah,
er, bedroom??? <g>) to the computer.

What I would sweat is that the interface displays no
visual cue of the hierarchical relationship between
objects. If you were to make one single suggestion to
improve the UI, that is the one I would choose.

HTH!
-Sue Gallagher

At 11:21 AM 8/29/02 -0700, Rosemary J Horner wrote:

I'm struggling to explain a ...
parent/child structure of objects. Users can create a relationship between
two objects; the one they start with is automatically the parent. After the
relationship has been added, it is displayed in a list, exactly the same way
on both objects. The only difference is when you open it to edit--then you
can see which is the parent and which is the child. It is possible to have
the same type of relationship twice between objects A and B-- where
A=parent, B=child and where A=child, B=parent. It looks like the same thing
is listed twice.

I am generally encouraged to provide usability feedback. I have already
commented that the words Parent Object and Child Object are too technical...
A little more background: this is a custom inhouse app that's already in
use, with barebones help that doesn't even mention relationships. I'm
writing new, in-depth help. Any suggestion for an interface change needs to
show a benefit in reduced data errors.

Anybody have any ideas of better words than parent and child?



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References:
terminology help: From: Rosemary J Horner

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