Language Files and Click Here

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Discuss features as they are added to the new version. Give us your feedback. Don't post bug reports, feature requests, support questions or suggestions here. Feature requests are closed.
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projectphp
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Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2004 7:14 am

Language Files and Click Here

Post by projectphp »

I really dislike the way a lot of the stuff in teh language files has Here as a link, e.g.
Click Here to view your message

Click Here to return to the forum
I think this is less usable than it could be, because:
1. the link is just one word (bad for scanning)
2. The format (link second word, explaination after link) requires reading what the link does and then returning to the start of the line to follow the link. This is not very intuitive, and slows things down.
3. The nature of these links is such that, being centered, the position of the link changes from line to line, and the ammount of dpace available is small (Here versus, say, Click Here To View Your Message simply View Your Message).

Jakob Nielsen's great alertbox Guidelines for Visualizing Link, and the hilarious Design By Fire Design Eye for the Usability Guy talk about this topic, as does his book, Home page usability. in the book, he mentions that descriptive words in links is always a good idea.

Many moons ago, in a forum I moderate in we had a discussion on this vey topic: http://www.cre8asiteforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=6360," target="_blank and it has some useful suggestions while coding these sorts of features.

IMHO, it would be great if phpBB 3.0 went live with better usability in this area, and I have reworked the language file to remove the "Click Here"s, and would be more than willing to email the new files over if others think this is an area that could be improved.

Just a small change, but IMHO, a valuable one.

Vire
Registered User
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2005 3:54 pm

Re: Language Files and Click Here

Post by Vire »

Yeh...

Well I'm sometimes annoyed by the online redirection to the message that was posted, it would be nice if we could turn it off in the ACP.

SamG
Registered User
Posts: 1241
Joined: Fri Aug 31, 2001 6:35 pm

Re: Language Files and Click Here

Post by SamG »

Please do remember that the current Olympus theme is for development purposes. It's unknown to most of us how Olympus will handle issues like this at final release.

While that may prove inconvenient for usability testing prior to final release, past experience leaves the development team no real options.
"I hate trolls!" - Willow Ufgood

projectphp
Registered User
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2004 7:14 am

Re: Language Files and Click Here

Post by projectphp »

You lost me dude!!

Step back: all I am saying is lets lose the Click Here links in the language file. phpBB 2.0.X has them, and so does 2.1.X and I don't see that changine past or present.

As I said, I have changed them relevent entries in both files (/language/lang_english/lang_admin.php and /language/lang_english/lang_admin.php) for example changing:

Code: Select all

$lang['Click_return_styleadmin'] = 'Click %sHere%s to return to Style Administration';
to

Code: Select all

$lang['Click_return_styleadmin'] = '%sReturn to Style Administration%s';
It would be nice if this chnage was made standard, and that, as part of the coding standards, Click %sHere%s was killed an buried, and all future language variables that have links use better Link text.

Easy as pie, and as I said, I have already changed one and am willing to send it to whomeevr :)

SamG
Registered User
Posts: 1241
Joined: Fri Aug 31, 2001 6:35 pm

Re: Language Files and Click Here

Post by SamG »

Sorry, I didn't mean to lose you.

Olympus will ship with a theme that we will not see until final release. So, for example, we may not yet know what the content of the language files will be (translators have been encouraged to wait, for example). The redirect page may look/work differently. It's unknown. That's all I'm saying. What we have here is for development purposes; the release will look significantly different.
"I hate trolls!" - Willow Ufgood

projectphp
Registered User
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2004 7:14 am

Re: Language Files and Click Here

Post by projectphp »

Fair enough!!!

It would be super nice, though, if dropping the click heres was made a standard. Drive me nuts!!!

SamG
Registered User
Posts: 1241
Joined: Fri Aug 31, 2001 6:35 pm

Re: Language Files and Click Here

Post by SamG »

:) I understand your point.
"I hate trolls!" - Willow Ufgood

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