Naming Things - Speaker Deck

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This is a talk by David Demaree The name of this talk is NAMING THINGS Refresh Chicago • January 25, 2012

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There are only two hard things in computer science: cache invalidation and NAMING THINGS http://martinfowler.com/bliki/TwoHardThings.html

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pipe

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pipe cigar

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pipes? pipes! pipes pipes?

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font

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font the metal type character set of a single size and style of a particular typeface font a digital ﬁle containing the character set for a particular variation of a typeface font the database object representing a particular font ﬁle

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font the word most commonly used by our customers to refer to a whole typeface

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“Hey, did you get that font thing ﬁgured out?”

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font typeface family superfamily font weight style variation

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font typeface family superfamily = All Gothams or Gotham Narrow = Gotham Narrow = All Gothams

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font font font font = All Gothams = Gotham Narrow = Gotham Narrow Bold = Font.find(‘gotham-narrow-bold’) CUSTOMER A CUSTOMER B TYPE DESIGNER TYPEKIT ENGINEER

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USER INTERFACE “font” refers to typefaces

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COMMUNICATIONS “fonts” refers to typefaces or type in general typefaces usually preferred over font or family

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BEHIND THE SCENES TypekitFontFamily FamilyChoice FontVariation FontFile a typeface on Typekit.com a typeface added to a Kit a weight or style of a family the actual font ﬁle for a variation

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TypekitFontFamily Browse::Family FontFamily Family a typeface on Typekit.com metadata for our new browsing UI a presenter for font/family data, no longer actively used see above

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# It's called Family instead of Font so that # we can potentially reserve the name Font for # the current FontVariation. Naming is hard. class Family # ... end ACTUAL CODE COMMENT FROM THE TYPEKIT.COM RAILS APP

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@families.each do |family| # What kind of family is this? family.class #=> Browse::FamilyCardPresenter?!?!?! end

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fonts or families fonts or licenses my fonts? purchased or licensed THE SEMANTICS OF LICENSING

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My Licenses My Web Licenses My Fonts Purchased Licenses Fonts I’ve Purchased Purchased Fonts

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Naming things = Domain modeling

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WHAT’S IN A NAME? GOOD

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descriptive accessible clear consistent GOOD NAMES ARE

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vague obscure ambiguous contradictory BAD NAMES ARE

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NAMING IS ALWAYS a compromise vag obsc ambig contrad riptive essible lear sistent

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Pro applications tend to sacriﬁce simple, intuitive naming for RAW POWER

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How are these things di erent?

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Hard for newcomers Extremely versatile for those trained in the system O ers more freedom to the user to deﬁne their own model but and

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THE GREATEST DOMAIN MODEL OF ALL TIME (according to David)

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Events Faces Places Photos grouped by time Photos grouped by people in them Photos grouped by where iPhoto’s library is automatically grouped into

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Events Faces Places = When? = Who? = Where?

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Natural Intuitive Unambiguous Simple

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Tags + semantics

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Typical tagging systems Users apply various words to describe a thing No framework for knowing what the words mean No guarantee of internal consistency Crystal Light National Aerobics Championship Opening #videos #funny #80s #wtf #roﬂ http://youtube.com/watch?v=ozoTzkCeO-A

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Semantic tagging systems Users associate a thing with specific other things Tags aren’t just abstract names, they provide context Built-in mental model for organizing and finding information Crystal Light National Aerobics Championship Opening http://youtube.com/watch?v=ozoTzkCeO-A Kind: Video When: 1980s Genre: Vintage TV #wtf #rofl Like

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Naming things = Branding

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JAKOB NIELSEN’S GUIDELINES FOR NAMING Supplement made-up words with known words Supplement brand names with generic terms Learn to recognize and avoid internal jargon

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The product’s name is OINK Things you post on Oink are OINKS The act of posting an Oink on Oink is OINKING or TO OINK

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Making a phone call = calling Posting a tweet on Twitter = tweeting Posting an oink on Oink = oinking

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oinking rating reviewing posting MAKES SENSE ONLY WITHIN THIS APP MAKE SENSE IN A BROADER CONTEXT NO PRIOR KNOWLEDGE NEEDED CLEARER AS TO INTENT

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“oink” “tweet” VS.

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Use invented or recontextualized words with caution

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Stream Circles Hangouts Incoming +1’s New from friends Groups Video chat New from… ? Like GOOGLE+

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NEW NEW TWITTER How are Connect and Discover di erent? How am I not Connecting or Discovering on the Home page?

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TOO REDUCTIVE Home Connect Discover Timeline Who to follow Local trends Interactions Mentions Who to follow Stories Trends Activity