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More on names
Aug. 26th, 2011 02:52 pmSo, you want someone to tell you their name... what kind of thing SHOULD you do if you don't want be the target of IRE and RUDE EMAILS :-p
(this is just my opinion, of course)
Two main things:
*Think about what you are going to use their name for, and ask them in a way that makes that clear; if for more than one thing, ask more than once.
*Accept any string the user can type; if you do need to make rules about what can not be in this string, or about the length of it, then say "sorry, our system can not handle your name" rather than "that's not a name" - it might be someone being silly, but it might be that a person really has a name that's too long or too obscure-unicode or whatever. Take a single string - not a drop-down title + string or "firstname" an "lastname" separately.
In general try to avoid assuming things about their name, or how they want you to use their name: some people want you to use a title (or more than one) as part of their name or instead of their name, others do not use any title (a full list of every title people might use would be very long); some people want you to use their first name or their last name or (one of) their middle name(s); some people want you to realise that their last name has a space in it but is one name and please use both parts (sim. for first and other names); some people use their initials (CJ Cregg off the West Wing comes to mind as an example); some use a shortened form of one of their names; others use a nickname; for some people the title(s) come first, for others last (are their in-fix titles?). Would it not be so much easier to ASK than to try to guess whether you are meant to say and risk getting the formality-level wrong?
I am actually reminded of this by my mother complaining to me (yet again) about annoying hotel staff who use "Firstname" to address her rather than "Mrs Surname". Whilst many people (like me) are happy to always use our personal names, many other people (like Mum) prefer to use a more formal form of address. And this is with a common British name, in a British hotel!
(this is just my opinion, of course)
Two main things:
*Think about what you are going to use their name for, and ask them in a way that makes that clear; if for more than one thing, ask more than once.
*Accept any string the user can type; if you do need to make rules about what can not be in this string, or about the length of it, then say "sorry, our system can not handle your name" rather than "that's not a name" - it might be someone being silly, but it might be that a person really has a name that's too long or too obscure-unicode or whatever. Take a single string - not a drop-down title + string or "firstname" an "lastname" separately.
In general try to avoid assuming things about their name, or how they want you to use their name: some people want you to use a title (or more than one) as part of their name or instead of their name, others do not use any title (a full list of every title people might use would be very long); some people want you to use their first name or their last name or (one of) their middle name(s); some people want you to realise that their last name has a space in it but is one name and please use both parts (sim. for first and other names); some people use their initials (CJ Cregg off the West Wing comes to mind as an example); some use a shortened form of one of their names; others use a nickname; for some people the title(s) come first, for others last (are their in-fix titles?). Would it not be so much easier to ASK than to try to guess whether you are meant to say and risk getting the formality-level wrong?
I am actually reminded of this by my mother complaining to me (yet again) about annoying hotel staff who use "Firstname" to address her rather than "Mrs Surname". Whilst many people (like me) are happy to always use our personal names, many other people (like Mum) prefer to use a more formal form of address. And this is with a common British name, in a British hotel!