What's in a Name (Validation)?

Names are generally one of the first things we ask for and one of the first things we offer in conversation as part of getting to know someone.

Names are also a pretty personal thing. It’s one thing to dislike your own name for your own reasons, but having someone else mangle your name can range from annoying to genuinely hurtful. So, it’s important to think about how we validate names as we work to create more inclusive technology.

Transcript

1. WHAT'S IN A NAME (VALIDATION)?
2. Hello! I'M CARLY HO engineer @ clique studios http://carlymho.com/ @carlymho
3. VALIDATING NAMES
4. names: important info, difficult to validate
5. WHAT IS A NAME?
6. what do we assume about names?
7. what are names but no, really
8. the form of a name is different almost everywhere
9. in the USA, we still often assume western euro norms
10. names: a way to refer to someone. pretty much it
11. sorry, there's no good way to validate them D:
12. SO WHAT CAN YOU DO?
13. what do you need the name for?
14. do you need to ID them by name?
15. do you need to separate first name/last name?
16. do you only need one part of a name?
17. THINK AHEAD
18. don't assume you can get info other than name from a name
19. don't assume which part is the surname/family name
20. make sure your ui accommodates both long + short names
21. let the user help you by telling them what you'll use the name for
22. COMPASSIONATE VALIDATION
23. your system might not be able to process all possible names
24. don't position it as a problem with the user's name
25. admit the system limitation in validations + work to improve
26. Thanks! QUESTIONS? You can find me at http://carlymho.com/ @carlymho
27. RESOURCES & FURTHER READING "Regular Expression for Validating Names and Surnames," stackoverflow "Your Last Name Contains Invalid Characters," John Graham-Cumming "Representing People's Names in Dublin Core," Andrew Waugh "Wookey - is that it?" Wookey "Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names," Patrick McKenzie