Action button labels

[_wb_]

Maybe we should make a list of all the (serious) proposals and do a poll?

Here is my attempt to make a list, did I forget something?

1) SEGA-style

        Z
    Y     C
X     B
    A

1b) variant with underlines to distinguish game buttons from keyboard keys
        Z
    Y     C
X     B
    A

2) Pandora layout + C and Z

        Z
    Y     C
A     B
    X

2b)

        C1
    Y     C2
A     B
    X

3) Greek letters that look a bit like Playstation layout

        Φ
    Δ      ψ
Π     Ω
    χ

4) Numbers / dice symbols

⚀  ⚁  ⚂  ⚃  ⚄  ⚅  in some order, for example:

5) Colors

       O

    P    B
G    Y

   R

5b)  (a variant on the above, using additive RGB colors)

        C

    B     G

M     Y

    R

6)   (I swapped Caine's symbols around to make it closer to the Playstation layout)

        ←   
    ⌂    ✓
≡    ⚇
   ✗

7)

8) Playing cards

     R
  ♣   B
♦  ♥
  ♠

9) Directions + extra buttons

         X1

    N     X2

W    E

    S

10) Chess

      ♔ 

   ♗   ♕
♙   ♘
   ♖

 

[Caine]

6)   (I swapped Caine's symbols around to make it closer to the Playstation layout)

        ←   


    ⌂    ✓


≡    ⚇


   ✗

Home does not correspond to the triangle on the playstation. You are matching based on shape, not the semantics that the shape is supposed to represent.


- Triangle: view/perspective = face


- circle: yes/accept = tick


- cross: no/cancel = cross


- square: menu = three lines


Proper swapping should be (based on the premise that the lower four are the "regular" action button diamond):

       ⌂

   ⚇    ←


≡    ✓

   ✗

 

[_wb_]

I agree with your point, but it would still be confusing to have something that resembles O in that spot and something that resembles Δ in that other spot.

 

[Caine]

I agree with your point, but it would still be confusing to have something that resembles O in that spot and something that resembles Δ in that other spot.

I personally don't see it as confusing, the characters are different enough in my opinion.


Furthermore having the yes and view/perspective buttons in those positions you put them feels really wrong.


Also here is a graphical mockup of the remote controller button idea.

That stop square ought to be a bit smaller though, I am sure there is a smaller one somewhere, but I'm too lazy now to look up its character code and redo the image.


As said, these have the benefit of having some correlation with home/end, pageup/pagedn, insert, delete but they look a bit too similar in my opinion.


Alternative would be to use:


                  [rewind]


         [play]            [forward]


[stop]         [record]


       [pauze]

Which basically steals the playstation controller layout as well but hides it by masking them as media controls

 

[Kiga]

       ⌂

   ⚇    ←


≡    ✓

   ✗

I don't like that there is no homogeneity.

The surface is already encumbered by all the buttons, if you put these labels,  it will look very dirty.

 

[Caine]

__wb__, you also forgot the option of just labelling them with whatever keyboard key is bound to them, e.g.:
 
                    [ins ]
          [PgUp]       [Del ]
[Home]        [End ]
          [PgDn]
 
<edit>Not sure what the symbolic versions of this would be, perhaps: ⇱ ⇲ ⇞ ⇟ ⌦ (home end pgup pgdn del).
I totally cannot come up with an insert symbol though. Hmmm... perhaps ⎆.
      ⎆
   ⇞   ⌦
⇱   ⇲
   ⇟
</edit>

 

[T.T.]

I like the idea of the greek letter layout. If we add colour to the buttons, I think we'll be golden.

I agree with _wb_, we need a poll for this to go anywhere productive.

 

[Granitehead]

7) could still be refined quite a bit... maybe I'll try something.

 

[Kiga]

I like the idea of the greek letter layout. If we add colour to the buttons, I think we'll be golden.

I agree with _wb_, we need a poll for this to go anywhere productive.

+1

Everybody gave all their suggestions and arguments.

 

[Caine]

Were roman numerals already mentioned?

    Ⅵ
  Ⅴ   Ⅲ
Ⅳ  Ⅱ
   Ⅰ

Well known and easy to refer to (e.g. "roman 4"). Only the roman 1 and 5 can be a bit confusing.

 

[Kiga]

Yes they were, it's the best unary style to me.

but

Compare:

Δ  JUMP


Ω  PUNCH


X  FIRE

Π  INVENTORY



Ψ CAST SPELL

Φ DROP BOMB

 

or

 

⚀ JUMP

⚁ PUNCH

⚂ FIRE

⚃ INVENTORY

⚄ CAST SPELL

⚅ DROP BOMB

 

[Fzero]

I like 5


I also like the idea of the remote control symbols, with those buttons obviously functioning as the controls within music ans video applications. That is pretty neat idea I think.


Where we have rwd and ffw as buttons here...


And we've had talk about using the shoulder buttons as music controls too, which I think is a great idea for skipping tracks when Pyra in the pocket and being used as a music player via headphones...


I think it would be nice if these two face buttons, rwd and fwd, and the triggers worked as skip and scan. So a single click will go to previous or next track of an album or next scene of a film. But long pressing the buttons would scan through. I guess that's managed by the application though rather than buttons themselves?

 

[Kiga]

Remote controls symbols look like that:

or that:

 

[Fzero]

What symbols you showing here Kiga?

First image can hardly see, the car radio doesn't really have the symbols which I think Caine was referring too, other than perhaps the Eject symbol and the RWD/FWD symbols.

I think the others would be better, like Caine demonstrated, those are universally used aren't they?

 

[Kiga]

.

If you can't do the link with images I posted before...

These symboles on Pyra just reminds me portable dvd player. It don't match with a umpc, it make it look cheap.

 

[Caine]

These symboles on Pyra just reminds me portable dvd player. It don't match at all with a umpc.

No? The Pandora is a fantastic MP3 player.I expect the Pyra to be an even better (media) player in general.

The Pandora/Pyra is a cross-over between a gaming handheld (active entertainment), tablet/media player (passive entertainment),

umpc/laptop (active productivity), and pda/smart phone (passive productivity). At least, that's how I look at it.

 

[God Ginrai]

Maybe we should make a list of all the (serious) proposals and do a poll?

Here is my attempt to make a list, did I forget something?

1) SEGA-style

        Z

    Y     C

X     B

    A

1b) variant with underlines to distinguish game buttons from keyboard keys

        Z

    Y     C

X     B

    A

 
Plain and Simple, these will work well.

2) Pandora layout + C and Z

        Z

    Y     C

A     B

    X

2b)

        C1

    Y     C2

A     B

    X

 Would prefer not to have these, there is no logical progression or common pattern in the button labels.

3) Greek letters that look a bit like Playstation layout

        Φ

    Δ      ψ

Π     Ω

    χ

 I've made my points regarding this one clear.

4) Numbers / dice symbols

⚀  ⚁  ⚂  ⚃  ⚄  ⚅  in some order, for example:

 A good, unique option. I would be perfectly fine with this.

5) Colors

       O

    P    B

G    Y

   R

5b)  (a variant on the above, using additive RGB colors)

        C

    B     G

M     Y

    R

 Why didn't I think of putting the letters with the colors before? This is a great idea, however I believe the layout would work better as:

       Y

    M    B

C    G

   R

That way, the bottom row is the primary colors of light, and the top row is the primary colors of pigment.

6)   (I swapped Caine's symbols around to make it closer to the Playstation layout)

        ←   

    ⌂    ✓

≡    ⚇

   ✗

 Same problem as the Greek Letters, but not as exaggerated. It's hard to describe those symbols. (Specifically the one with 3 lines and the circle with 2 dots in it)

7)

I feel like with them connected that people will not refer to them as numbers, which would be okay if you made the 4 into a square. Otherwise people are going to have a hard time describing it. Also, the order is strange. Why the heck does it go 651 432?

8) Playing cards

     R

  ♣   B

♦  ♥

  ♠

 Obviously I support this one since I suggested it.

9) Directions + extra buttons

         X1

    N     X2

W    E

    S

 Honestly, the cardinal directions bother me. But the X1 and X2 are the reasons I really don't like this setup. There's no logical progression or common pattern between all of the buttons.

10) Chess

      ♔ 

   ♗   ♕

♙   ♘

   ♖

I don't really dislike or like this one. Although I do believe a different ordering of the symbols is needed if we use this. One other question, these symbols are a lot more complex than all the others. Would they be easy to make out on the buttons? And would they be more costly to inscribe on the buttons?

-God Ginrai

 

[Kiga]

These symboles on Pyra just reminds me portable dvd player. It don't match at all with a umpc.

No? The Pandora is a fantastic MP3 player.
I expect the Pyra to be an even better (media) player in general.


The Pandora/Pyra is a cross-over between a gaming handheld (active entertainment), tablet/media player (passive entertainment),


umpc/laptop (active productivity), and pda/smart phone (passive productivity). At least, that's how I look at it.

                  [rewind]


         [play]            [forward]


[stop]         [record]


       [pauze]

I didn't see that. Why not, it's still better than letters or cards or colors or dice.

 

[Fzero]

.

If you can't do the link with images I posted before...

These symboles on Pyra just reminds me portable dvd player. It don't match with a umpc, it make it look cheap.

Ah ok I get you, you mean those style buttons would make the Pyra look like a dvd player

I thought you were showing some other button styles on those 2 images you linked. Gotcha.

 

[Fzero]

I pretty much agree with God Ginrai on this it seems.

Except with [10], the chess pieces.

I'm not so keen on these for just one reason, I don't think those picts are too familiar with so many people.

The playing cards, for example, I'm sure are a lot more familiar and if you asked someone to press [diamond], they would do so.

But those chess graphics... Ask someone to press [Rook], and they might have a little delay

Not so many people might play chess and know these, even myself the King/Queen is not immediate ... the Queen is the top one, right? The more curly crown?

Edit: That said, how often are you going to be 'asking' someone to press a button?

If you were telling someone verbally, it's an issue.

If you telling someone to press a certain button though via an on screen prompt, or print form, in which case you'd be displaying the actual graphic anyway, it's all good...

...In which case, any style would be ok really and my argument above void. As a user would simply be matching the symbol, simple as that, which I don't think anyone would have problems with