What casing should we used for checkboxes and radio buttons?

[samreid]

Skimming through several simulations, I saw several cases where checkboxes or radio buttons were title cased, like this:

In phetsims/faradays-law#124 we corrected the casing for "Field lines", and @arouinfar pointed out that Trig Tour has casing like this:

Should this trig tour case be changed? Would you like to assign someone (design person, QA person, intern) to look through strings in all sims to see if other occurrences should be changed?

[ariel-phet]

@samreid consistency is nice and all, but I don't think it is worth the effort to skim through all sims for changes, the trig tour one (since noticed) can be changed, I will create an issue.

[amanda-phet]

We already have Binder combing through all sims, so it would be pretty easy to have someone spend less than an hour looking through the examples of radio buttons and check boxes and creating issues for each sim.

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________________________________ From: Ariel Paul <notifications@github.com> Sent: Wednesday, September 5, 2018 6:18:09 PM To: phetsims/tasks Cc: Subscribed Subject: Re: [phetsims/tasks] What casing should we used for checkboxes and radio buttons? (#953) Closed #953<#953>. — You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub<#953 (comment)>, or mute the thread<https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AHfTdG7ElrX4ofwMfmNNgGDZXyQAQXRMks5uYGnBgaJpZM4Wb4ml>.

[samreid]

@amanda-phet pointed out one way we might proceed. Another possibility would be to note in a pre-publication checklist so we don't publish new sims with this inconsistency. @ariel-phet up to you if you want to re-close or follow an alternate strategy.

[ariel-phet]

@KatieWoe please look through all current HTML5 sims (or delegate ) and look for this inconsistency (we will want title case). For any sim that needs to be corrected, please make an issue in the sim repo and then close this issue.

[amanda-phet]

https://phetsims.github.io/binder/

The "sim examples" section seems broken. @mbarlow12 do you know anything about this?

[arouinfar]

@amanda-phet the Sim Examples sections are loading for me, though RadioButtonGroup does not appear to include VerticalAquaRadioButton (yet), so we're missing the string-based radio buttons.

[pixelzoom]

For the record, I disagree with this "convention" of requiring labels to use title case.

[samreid]

I agree, there are cases where lowercase is warranted.

[KatieWoe]

Should I ask a designer to confirm before making an issue, or continue making issues for instances?

[samreid]

Perhaps use your judgment, and if you see something that looks odd or inconsistent, create an issue for the designer? For instance in Area Model looks like the casing was done purposefully and consistently, so doesn't seem problematic to me:

But, for instance, if only one of these words was lowercase, that would be problematic:

[arouinfar]

@KatieWoe please continue to make issues, but assign them to the lead designer for final review.

@pixelzoom stated in phetsims/function-builder#122

And I know of no convention that requires every control label to start with an uppercase letter.

This does not extend to every control. I, too, would disagree with that. The accordion boxes and panel titles in @samreid's #953 (comment) would not fall under this issue.

However, as we work on creating a Style Guide, we are going to conventionalize some things. Checkboxes and Radio Buttons in panels should have consistent casing. The majority of sims have used title casing, so we decided to go with that. There is no good reason why Trig Tour should use "Special angles" and not "Special Angles", for example.

However, I think there can be some exceptions, particularly in cases like "simplify" in Function Builder. That checkbox is on its own and was likely lowercase to reduce visual weight.

[pixelzoom]

The more you use uppercase, the less effective it becomes at adding "weight". Kind of like the overuse of bold text that we were guilty of in Java sims. That said, I think the convention used in the Area Model sims is vastly superior.

[KatieWoe]

@arouinfar I have checked all the checkboxes in the the style guide example. However, there is no vertical aqua radio button group in the style guide.
@ariel-phet should I check the sims on master for this aspect, or should the issue be held until vertical aqua radio buttons are added to the style guide?

[ariel-phet]

@KatieWoe I think the issue should be held until they are added to the style guide

[arouinfar]

Thanks @KatieWoe! I agree with @ariel-phet. Let's wait until verticalAquaRadioButtonGroup is in the style guide.

[pixelzoom]

@ariel-phet Now that a whole bunch of issues have been created, what is the timeframe for deciding whether they will be (or even need to be) addressed?

[ariel-phet]

@pixelzoom I think we can just address these issues when we republish sims. There is no need to prioritize this work otherwise. Closing this issue now that specific issues have been created.