[stcusesig_l] Web form design

Thu Aug 28 04:40:30 MDT 2008

Hi Caroline

It's not that 'fall' as a season is unambiguous -- context should tell
us that. And numerous US TV shows should mean that there's no reason we
don't understand that term. 

The problem for us in the southern hemisphere is that we have to convert
ANY northern hemisphere season to a month for it to mean anything. For
'fall' we have to do two conversions -- the term and the approximate
month. We have the same problem with 'summer' too, even though that's
just a conversion to an approximate month (e.g. from June to December).

In case you weren't aware, seasons start on different dates depending on
the country. For example, Australia starts their seasons on the 1st of
the respective month (e.g. Dec 1 for summer, Mar 1 for autumn, Jun 1 for
winter, and Sep 1 for spring), whereas I understand that the US starts
their seasons around the 20th of the particular month to match the
equinoxes, solstices etc. So does 'summer' mean mid-June to
mid-September, or if I'm familiar with the Australian convention of
starting a season on the 1st, would I interpret the northern hemisphere
'summer' to be June 1 to August 31?

If you want to know how frustrating this continual conversion is, I
invite you come sit in the same room as my husband who -- no matter how
many times I tell him -- has to keep asking me "When's 'fall'
(spring/summer/winter) again?" whenever he is researching northern
hemisphere music sites that talk in terms of seasons for record
releases. He's pedantic about getting music release dates right, and it
frustrates him no end when only a season is given. He has to figure out
where the release occurred (which hemisphere), then convert the season
into an approximate 3-month range. 

If product releases were designated by quarters or specific months, then
there would be NO hesitation and no conversions to do at least for those
of us that use the Gregorian calendar.

IMHO, companies that uses seasons to designate releases just add
impediments to usability and are not thinking globally.

Rhonda, who is looking forward to spring officially starting in a couple
of days

Rhonda Bracey
rhonda.bracey at cybertext.com.au
http://www.cybertext.com.au <http://www.cybertext.com.au/> 
CyberText Newsletter/blog: http://cybertext.wordpress.com
<http://cybertext.wordpress.com/> 
Author-it Certified Consultant 

________________________________

From: stcusesig_l-bounces+rhonda.bracey=cybertext.com.au at mailman.stc.org
[mailto:stcusesig_l-bounces+rhonda.bracey=cybertext.com.au at mailman.stc.o
rg] On Behalf Of Caroline Jarrett
Sent: Thursday, 28 August 2008 5:46 PM
To: Rhonda Bracey
Subject: Re: [stcusesig_l] Web form design

Hi Michael

The book is listed on Amazon.com as being available from 15th October,
and on Amazon.co.uk a little later.

Surely 'fall' is unambiguous?  It's a northern USA term for the period
approximately mid-September to mid-November. I've not seen it used in
the southern hemisphere.

It's 'autumn' that we have to be careful about. That's a different
period in the northern hemisphere countries that use the term and in the
southern hemisphere.

By the way, thanks to everyone for their interest in the book.  It's
been a long haul and I'm very excited that it's coming out at last.

Best

Caroline

From:
stcusesig_l-bounces+caroline.jarrett=effortmark.co.uk at mailman.stc.org
[mailto:stcusesig_l-bounces+caroline.jarrett=effortmark.co.uk at mailman.st
c.org] On Behalf Of Write Ideas
Sent: 28 August 2008 00:08
To: caroline.jarrett at effortmark.co.uk
Subject: Re: [stcusesig_l] Web form design

Hi Ginny (R)

Just to clarify, please, I gather that "Fall" (an unfamiliar term here
in Australia) is some US English reference to the falling leaves of your
cool climate deciduous tress during the Northern Hemisphere Autumn
(whilst it is Spring here in the Southern Hemisphere).

(This presents a usability issue in terms of global English, I suppose.)

By the way, here in Australia, all of our native trees are evergreens.
But then we get heat waves and bushfires at Xmas time (in fact
California USA has had massive bushfires / AKA forest fires, ever since
they planted our eucalyptus trees, which explode and need such fires to
open their seed pods for forest re-growth).

That said, please be so kind as to specify a likely month of release for
the book, please?

Cheers,

Michael Granat
Write Ideas
Carnegie, Victoria, Australia

At 06:14 26/08/2008, you wrote:

Caroline Jarrett, who is very active in STC, also has a book on web
forms design that is currently in press.  It is due out this Fall.  The
reference is

Jarrett and Gaffney, Forms that Work:  Designing Web Forms for
Usability.

You can read about it on Amazon.  Just search under Caroline Jarrett's
name.

Best,
Ginny Redish

Janice (Ginny) Redish, Ph.D.
President
Redish & Associates, Inc.

Michael Granat
Write Ideas
www.writeideas.com.au
<http://www.writeideas.com.au/>
http://www.alliance.org.au/freelancers/journalists/write_ideas/details/
Phone: 0419 502 378.

21 Years of Write Ideas!

________________________________

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