The Importance Of Interface Text (part 2) - The Screening Process (
Page 3 of 8 )
Having got the menu titles out of the way, we now come to the screen, or
window, titles.
Ideally, the screen title should reflect the menu option clicked for ease
of understanding and reference.
There may be times when the functions available within the user interface
require more than one screen. For example, for an "Edit Item" function, the
first screen may allow the user to search for an existing item, while the
second screen displays the settings and allows modification.
In such cases, the first question to be asked is whether this is the norm
with all such options. If it is, then you may assign nomenclature for these
screen types - for example, "Search For Item" and "Edit Item Details" would
be appropriate titles. If, however, this is a one-off occurrence, and you
cannot fit this screen into any of your existing types, you would be better
off *not* setting nomenclature for the screens. Setting separate titles in
such cases merely adds one more level of complexity, and requires more help
material for those users who get confused.
Another case is of screens that pop up in new windows for additional data
entry. Title these screens to indicate exactly the task they perform, or
the data they need. Trying to depict a link with the parent screen is not
required, because the context is already set by the display of the
sub-screen at that particular point.
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