All my users are obsessed with labels, e.g. the label next to the field. Sometimes, I add these as computed text and do a keyword lookup.
But I still get a huge number of changes just ‘can we make it say x instead of y’.
Who cares what the label says, long as you can use the application!
ANyone else have something they want to get off their chest?
Subject: rant of the day - user obsession with field labels
This is one thing that’s never been an issue for me. By the time an app reaches even beta stage and users touch it, we’ve gone through several alpha iterations and they’ve seen demos and tweaked any verbiage.
Subject: RE: rant of the day - user obsession with field labels
Yeah – I think it’s important also to remember that these picky end-users are the people we’re trying to serve. The application needs to be usable for them, and that means using terminology that they’ll recognize.
So I don’t have a lot of sympathy for Generic’s plight. Get good user feedback on the UI up front, and this is much less of an issue.
Subject: rant of the day - user obsession with field labels
Here are some from my wish list…
The label is a property of the field object. And that label could be computed, depending on language, where the field is used etc. Like using computed text, but it is part of the field object, so there is only one place to maintain it.
“Field help” is a property for the field. Also, it must support different languages. Again, mantained in one place only. Note that field help may point to an external DB, so that the help is not part of the design. (don’t want a new DB version every time a few help spelling errors are fixed)
“Designer notes” where the app designer can write any special notes about that field, and they stay with the field. Will reduce maintenance effort becasue these notes stay with the field object.
Fields treated as true object in the DB. That means you have a list of all fields in the DB, like the list of shared fields etc. That is not the same as all fields in the data, which grows to an unmanageable mess as the database is maintained over the years.
The field name is an internal label. If you edited the field name in one place, the it is updated everywhere else (including script). But this one is too much to ask for…
Subject: RE: rant of the day - user obsession with field labels
impractical2) already is
use a hide/when
just more overhead
team studio - take note <-----
Subject: *Without random user requests, many would have to find other jobs. These keep us employed.
Subject: RE: *Without random user requests, many would have to find other jobs. These keep us employed.
Yes, unfortunately, we as developers sometimes are required to do some boring busy work - at least that is the way I perceive these types of changes. Make it red, no blue, wait, no, red…As Ben said, even though its kind of boring, at least you have a job! We don’t always get to do the glamorous technically complex R&D work - sometimes we get stuck with trivial changes but these are the ones the user’s tend to like the most.
They don’t care about how long it took you to code some fancy custom search agent / page for the web, they just care about how pretty the button looks or like you said, the labels on the fields.
I guess my rant comes from lack of user input (during requirements def stage) and that is why there are so many trivial changes going forward - if the users know what they want prior to development (and know how to communicate it), you will have less of these types of changes.
Subject: RE: *Without random user requests, many would have to find other jobs. These keep us employed.
I should get a sign put up next to my phone which reads:
It's All Gravy.
Subject: rant of the day - user obsession with field labels
If the Lucky Charms leprechaun can turn the moon (the freaking moon, people!) into a marshmallow, why can’t he get rid of those kids?!
Or is this strictly for Notes ranting? Cause I don’t really have any of those.
Subject: RE: rant of the day - user obsession with field labels
No, rant away!Lets get it out in the open!
Subject: RE: rant of the day - user obsession with field labels
I’ve always had an issue with Doogie Houser, MD. Here he is, going through a surgical rotation in med school, but he still has problems with interpersonal communication with ‘girls’. I just dont get that.
Subject: RE: rant of the day - user obsession with field labels
I never got that either.
Also, it has never set well with me that the board game Monopoly is only made by one company.
Subject: *LOL
Subject: *Nah, any ranting is cool with me (and I agree with your rant)
Subject: rant of the day - user obsession with field labels
You still develop applications with Lotus Notes? Wow, and here I thought that Lotus Notes was dead. I wonder how could it have survived when you can easily migrate a domino application by having a web crawler screen scrape the domino data, dump it in to a file and then import that file in to an application of your choice?
Subject: RE: rant of the day - user obsession with field labels
What a doofus that guy is, huh ? there just CANNOT be a person who read that little essay and still gives that guy a shred of credibility…its so mysterious…what would cause a person with the level of understanding to think he has some business writing about things like that …or is he so confused, he thinks he know anything about what he is writing about…riddles inside riddles
DISCLAIMER - Not you GenericND, this is some blogger person, if you missed his little thing he posted, be glad
Subject: RE: rant of the day - user obsession with field labels
Yeah, let’s all just thank God that guy never came across the File → Export command or we’d all be out of a job.
I can see it now: “All you have to do is click ‘File → Export’ and all your data just pops out”.
Yes, then there’s just the trifling matter of coding the application’s actually functionality, workflow, data linkages, security model and deployment strategy in your new platform (and hope your new platform has a ‘File → Import’).
Ed Brill shouldn’t have even deigned to respond to the moron.
Luke