I disagree that alphabetical is random; it is quite well-ordered by a long-set of standing rules. It is also a means of ordering that people learn, in Western culture, from the day they begin to learn to read. As Chauncey says, it is the way to order when no other order makes sense.
Mary Deaton On Wed, Feb 4, 2009 at 9:51 AM, Chauncey Wilson <[email protected]>wrote: > There is a good discussion of ordering in the old, but classic book by > Deborah Mayhew, *Principles* and *Guidelines* in *Software* User Interface > Design. > > The book has a nice if-then chart which highlights a rough way to choose > how > to order items. The chart and guidelines are based on research into order > items. Alphabetical ordering is generally used when the list if very long > and/or there is not better way to order the items. There is some research > on > ordering of items in the ACM digital library if you have access to that. > Menus are often hybrid designs as Elizabeth notes where you have a general > structure that might be frequency of use, but within that structure use > other grouping schemes as well (like semantic similarity). General grouping > schemes include: > > Alphabetical > Task order > Frequency > Numerical (font size) > De facto standard > Legal order > Complexity (simple to hard) > Semantic similarity > First-in, first out > > This is a good topic since much of what we do is to organize things in an > order which helps understanding or makes us more efficient or supports easy > recollection. > > Thanks, > Chauncey > > > > > > On Wed, Feb 4, 2009 at 12:20 PM, Dmitry Nekrasovski > <[email protected]>wrote: > > > Does anyone know of any studies, tests, or standards of practice that > > discuss when to organize a list of items in alphabetical order vs. > > another designed order (such as one based on expected frequency of > > use)? > > > > I'm most interested in this topic for web site navigation, but > > applicable references for other contexts (e.g. menu design in desktop > > applications) would also be appreciated. > > > > Thanks, > > > > Dmitry > > ________________________________________________________________ > > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > > To post to this list ....... [email protected] > > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > > > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [email protected] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > -- Mary Deaton Yes we can. Yes we did. Yes we will ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
