Design of KudoZ answer form (Mod: "Language variant" field misleading) Thread poster: Jack Doughty
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Jack Doughty 
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:53
Russian to English
+ ...
In memoriam
The Language variant line box is marked with a thick line at the left edge and at the top, while the Target term line is not. This makes it look as if the box with the thick edges is the important one, so it is easy to enter the target term in the wrong line. So the Target term line should have the thick edges and the Language variant line should not.
Also, one often sees variants of the answerer's target term entered in this line instead of the language variant. I think the line headin... See more The Language variant line box is marked with a thick line at the left edge and at the top, while the Target term line is not. This makes it look as if the box with the thick edges is the important one, so it is easy to enter the target term in the wrong line. So the Target term line should have the thick edges and the Language variant line should not.
Also, one often sees variants of the answerer's target term entered in this line instead of the language variant. I think the line heading is misleading, and would be less so in the form of a question, e.g. "What variant of target language?"
[Subject edited by staff or moderator 2008-07-16 14:42] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Özden Arıkan
Germany
Local time: 01:53
Member
English to Turkish
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Hi Jack,
I agree with you on both accounts: the field is too long/big and can be confused with the Target Term field. In fact, this happened to me twice. I got an error message right after submitting an answer and realized that I entered my answer in the Language Variant field, leaving the Target Term field empty.
It is also true that many people misinterpret the function of this field and enter a synonym of their answers there. This may be happening more often in langu... See more Hi Jack,
I agree with you on both accounts: the field is too long/big and can be confused with the Target Term field. In fact, this happened to me twice. I got an error message right after submitting an answer and realized that I entered my answer in the Language Variant field, leaving the Target Term field empty.
It is also true that many people misinterpret the function of this field and enter a synonym of their answers there. This may be happening more often in languages with no established language variant, like my target language, Turkish. Maybe people believe that they shouldn't leave such an important-looking field empty, who knows?
Clicking on the tiny blue question mark next to the field might help, though:
Language variant
This is an optional field where you can specify whether the answer you are providing is in a particular language variant (e.g., "European Portuguese", "UK English"). If your answer does not fall into a specific language variant, you may leave this field blank.
But, as I said, it is tiny
To conclude, it would help if that field was re-designed. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Patricia Rosas
United States
Local time: 16:53
Spanish to English
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In memoriam | in favor of this minor redesigning! | Jul 16, 2008 |
Jack Doughty wrote:
The Language variant line box is marked with a thick line at the left edge and at the top, while the Target term line is not. This makes it look as if the box with the thick edges is the important one, so it is easy to enter the target term in the wrong line.
[Subject edited by staff or moderator 2008-07-16 14:42]
The same thing has happened to me several times, so I agree with you, Jack!
| | | | lexical
Spain
Local time: 01:53
Portuguese to English
| I agree with redesign | Jul 16, 2008 |
I can't actually see the difference in line thickness that Jack mentions but I do agree the "Language variant" box is misleading. Some of us campaigned for this useful feature, so I wouldn't like to see it disappear. But even in my pair (Portugeuse-English) where there are major variants in both source and target languages, too many people use it as Ozden says to enter a variation on their answer.
I hadn't realised what the blue question mark was for until Ozden said, so I'm not sur... See more I can't actually see the difference in line thickness that Jack mentions but I do agree the "Language variant" box is misleading. Some of us campaigned for this useful feature, so I wouldn't like to see it disappear. But even in my pair (Portugeuse-English) where there are major variants in both source and target languages, too many people use it as Ozden says to enter a variation on their answer.
I hadn't realised what the blue question mark was for until Ozden said, so I'm not surprised others are not benefiting from it. Something needs to be done to make it clearer what the "Language variant" box is for, either by making the question mark more prominent or by changing the text alongside the box. ▲ Collapse
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Jack Doughty
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:53
Russian to English
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TOPIC STARTER In memoriam | Depends which browser you use | Jul 16, 2008 |
I normally use Firefox, in which the two fields differ as I described. But I have just tried it in Internet Explorer, and there the two fields are identical.
| | | | lexical
Spain
Local time: 01:53
Portuguese to English
I'm viewing it in the latest version of Firefox (3.0) and I can't see the difference in the lines, Jack. Must be something to do with screen resolution.
| | | | Yaotl Altan
Mexico
Local time: 17:53
Member (2006)
English to Spanish
+ ...
| I agree with Jack | Jul 16, 2008 |
The redesign could inlcude two boxes (both boxes in the same row) with a softer colour box in order to identifiy them not as the main file to be filled. The first box would be used to enter the variation text.
"What variant of target language?"
As mind tends to be increasingly graphical, I propose to choose one out of several tiny banners in a second box. As I work mainly with Spanish, there could be all the Latin American flags and the Spanish too, displaying three letters ... See more The redesign could inlcude two boxes (both boxes in the same row) with a softer colour box in order to identifiy them not as the main file to be filled. The first box would be used to enter the variation text.
"What variant of target language?"
As mind tends to be increasingly graphical, I propose to choose one out of several tiny banners in a second box. As I work mainly with Spanish, there could be all the Latin American flags and the Spanish too, displaying three letters for each contry, id est, MEX for the Mexican version, SPA for the Spanish, VEN for the Venezuelan one, et al. The same can be implementd for Portuguese (POR, BRA, and some other Potuguese sepaking countries), French (FRA, CAN, ARG, SWI, et al.) and the rest of languages.
[Modificato alle 2008-07-16 18:11] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Jack Doughty
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:53
Russian to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER In memoriam
I didn't know there was such a thing as Firefox 3.0, but I have now upgraded to it, and though there are a few other noticeable changes, the two fields on the Answer page remain different, as I described earlier.
P.S. That was on my desktop, but I just downloaded it onto my new laptop (with Vista), and the two fields remain of the same appearance there too.
[Edited at 2008-07-16 18:37]
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