[stcusesig_l] Measuring by season (was: RE: Web form design)

Thu Aug 28 06:10:41 MDT 2008

Good point. 

Here in the UK, we have the additional fun thing of the government year
starting on 6th April. The history of this is quite fun: it started because
the year ended on the March quarter day, 25th March. So the new year started
on 26th March for purposes of taxation, rentals, etc. This aligned with a
low point in agricultural activity and was more convenient than 25th
December, the previous quarter day and a holiday. 

In 1752, England decided to adopt the same calendar as (most of) the rest of
Europe (the Gregorian calendar) - one of the earliest examples of an attempt
at European harmonisation. At that point, we were 11 days adrift from
Europe. This caused rioting in the streets and as a compromise, the
Government kept the tax year the same as it used to be - thus moving the end
of the year to 5th April. 

So the suggestion of using quarters doesn't work too well for us. When
someone says 1st quarter, do they mean January to March (calendar year),
April to June (tax year) or some other period relative to (say) a business
year, which in the UK can start on any reasonable date that makes sense to
the business? 

For example, a lot of academic institutions here align their business year
with the academic calendar. They have summer holidays from around end of
June to around beginning of September, so they start their new year on 1st
July, 1st August or 1st September. 

I think we persist in using terms like fall (or autumn), summer and so on
because they are pleasantly vague. For example, I'm working on a project
where a major delivery was promised for 'this summer' - a point we have
having to stretch to include middle of September. Basically, no-one wanted
to commit to something as specific as 'July' or 'August'. I'm not quite sure
how one solves the internationalisation problem: perhaps we could have said
'somewhere around August' but that makes the vagueness more explicit,
somehow. 

A term that always confuses me is 'semester'. My university didn't have
semesters, we had terms called Michaelmas (October/November), Hilary
(February/March) and Trinity (May/June). I've never been entirely sure what
semesters are, when they start and finish, and I'm fairly certain they are
different in different countries. 

Anyway, my tongue-in-cheek response to Michael has broadened into a more
interesting discussion, I hope. 

Best
Caroline

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------

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
CyberText Newsletter/blog: 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.org]
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.stc.or
g] 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.alliance.org.au/freelancers/journalists/write_ideas/details/
Phone: 0419 502 378.

21 Years of Write Ideas!
________________________________________
This message has been comprehensively scanned for viruses, please visit
http://www.avg.power.net.uk/ for details. 
________________________________________
This message has been comprehensively scanned for viruses, please visit
http://www.avg.power.net.uk/ for details. 