Technical foundations of the User Interface
Let's start from simple sequenced analogies which are hardly understood by many people, not burdened with a technical knowledge.
In a museum's picture we see not the person, but his image - color spots and brushstroke, witch create the image of the person (it is clear for all people). On the TV screen we see not the person, but his image - luminous pixels on the screen (with this agrees not everyone; some people believe that TV is similar to field-glass in a certain sense: for this people I recommended to read the S. Minaev's last book, "Media Sapiens"). On the screen of the computer monitor we see not objects and operations of a computer, only images of objects and operations - the symbolic graphic representation chosen by developers of the user interface (UI). With last postulate many people do not agree at all, but it is the real truth.
In the computer's UI we usually use a mouse pointing device (further "mouse" for simplicity) and a keyboard. Therefore all operations and the action verbs used to describe this operations not to the graphic objects represented on the screen (which generally can be any form and shape), and concern to the mouse and the keyboard. When in program's help system we see the instruction "to right click the Save button", we do not need to break out the right button from the mouse pointing device and to click by it the button's image on the screen. It is necessary to click the right button of the mouse when its pointer is set above the image of the Save button (thereby this button is chosen from among other control elements presented on the screen). Also that is interesting: the mouse button always clicks, i.e. make a short, abrupt sound (as in Ожегов's Russian dictionary).
Real operations in the user interface are carried out by quite real objects (the keyboard, the mouse, the stylus, etc.), and the computer displays these operations on the screen as symbolic graphic images represented operation with the real device - the button on the screen is pressed as the real device's button, but the screen is flat and such "pressing" only represents the operation with real mouse or keyboard. To make the user interface understandable without prior training (i.e. to build the intuitive user interface), representation of operation on the screen is made as much as possible similar to the real operation that is simulated. It is made so successfully, that many people cease to distinguish reality from the image on the screen as housewives confuse real life to "life" in the television show.
The second aspect is related with the description of operations in the user interface, i.e. with terms accepted for naming of the operations (press, click, choose, select, etc.). Meaning of these verbs, as well meaning of object's name to which they are applied, are not less symbolic, than representation of operations on the screen. When in the documentation it is written "click the Start button", it means: "move the mouse on a flat surface to choose image of the Start button by mouse pointer, then execute the Click operation which consists in pressing and releasing the mouse button within the time interval, not exceeding the interval of double click with is set up in the computer's operational system". Thus, many terms are the reduced form of the long description of an operation or an object of the user interface.
Transition from long and "correct" in every respect descriptions to short and not to so obvious term is not always successful. Simply speaking, meaning of a terminology word is not always identical to the usual use of a word in language. Ordinary Russian words are defined in the Russian dictionaries, and Russian technical terms are defined in specialized technical dictionaries. We can recollect a joke from Microsoft Windows 2003 Help system (see http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/auth_mschap.mspx?mfr=true). Microsoft's technical writer cut the absolutely correct phrase "Allow older MS-CHAP version for servers running under Windows 95" to the phrase "Allow older MS-CHAP version for Windows 95 servers". Such reduction is correct from the grammar point of view, but lead to wrong result in technical sense, because we didn't have the heart to say that Windows 95 is server operational system. By the way, in Russian localization the sense has been restored due to further reduction of the phrase up to "Allow older MS-CHAP version for Windows 95".
One more characteristic of terminology of the user interface is related to the fact that the standard and strictly regulated terminological system does not exist. Any company can use any terminology convenient for it. For example, Microsoft use the term "Dialog box" for special windows on the screen, and not use terms "Dialog" and "Pop-up Window" (see [1]); but Apple on the contrary recommends the term "Dialog", forbidding the term "Dialog Box" [3], while Sun use the term "Dialog Box" everywhere in documentation, but has not included it in the recommended terms list and has not forbidden the term "Dialog" (probably, to not enter in this principal discussion between Microsoft and Apple). Hence, the terminological system is limited to scope of documentation from the company developed the software product. Experts without effort know all these variations, but it is too difficultly for amateurs. Below we in detail and individually discuss technical sense, variations and comprehensible translation for a basic terms of the user interface.
In the USSR it was be much easier to work with terminology, as there were special state standards (GOST) for terminology - "Terms and definitions", obligatory (down to the criminal liability) for all companies and organizations. Now in Russia, GOST and GOST R (Russian Federation's standard) standards have only recommendatory right, as well as national standards of the developed industrial countries for the companies of these countries, therefore the Russian company can use own terminological system for translation of the English terms, similarly to Microsoft, Apple or Sun. By the way, the author does not know any GOST and GOST R standards devoted to the user interface.
But it is the half of the story. Microsoft recently has decided to divide the documentation into four categories (see [1]), intended to users with different level of knowledge. Simply speaking, the Company is going to use not one, but four terminological systems at once. Earlier Microsoft released the documentation for "end users", but now the intended audience is divided into four groups, and for each group some terms are recommended and other terms are forbidden. Following categories of potential readers are established:
- Home users. People who use their computer at home to send e-mail, browse the Internet, download music, display digital photos, and perform similar tasks. Microsoft makes very few assumptions about home users� knowledge of, or comfort with, computers.
- Information workers. People who use their computer at the office for word processing, e-mail, spreadsheet work, presentations, and other work-related tasks that do not involve programming or system administration.
- Information technology professionals. People with a very sophisticated knowledge of system administration, including administration of enterprise-wide systems and database administrators.
- Software developers. People who write computer programs professionally.
However, within the scope of the software product of only one company there is quite strict and precise terminological system which is necessary to preserve in translation. Simply speaking, if for the Start button the translation "Пуск" is chosen, this term (the word Пуск) should be used anyway in the translation (localization) of software product, despite of the presence in the Internet or in some dictionary the translation "Старт" for the Start button. There can be problems too. For example, in the recent localized by me the Windows product the term "Dialog" was used everywhere, but at links to names of the control elements of operational system the technical writer has left the term "Dialog box". In spite of the fact that the product has the Apple style, in the Russian version for "Dialog" and "Dialog box" I had use only one term: "диалоговое окно", considering an operational environment (Windows) and a potential audience (home user).
Linguistic principles of UI terminology
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