[Sigia-l] most understandable phrasing

[Sulleiro, Andres]

Without any empirical data I will go with my own opinion.


> 1.  My cohorts are not sure whether to use "cell phone" or "mobile phone".  
> Any evidence that one is better than the other, or one is 
> used more often than the other?

"Cell phone" seems to be more prevalent in colloquial speech, but a quick survey of the phone carriers seems to suggest that "wireless" (as in "wireless phone", "wireless customer") is most common among US carriers, though you see some references to "mobile" as well. T-mobile, a European company, uses "mobile" which is more common in Europe as well as being the name of the carrier.  

Amazon, as a common benchmark of everything usability, uses "cell phone".


> 3. What phrasing do you use for "html email" and "plain text email"? We 
> will be asking the user to select one or the other.

I would bet that the common user (non-web industry folk) won't know the difference. Maybe, by being presented with the two options will be able to say "ok, I guess plain text is just text, then the other kind must have pictures or something". I suspect that most users are not aware why there are two formats and what are the implications of choosing one over the other (platform incompatibilities, download times, ability to view offline, etc).


> 4. Where do you go when you are unsure how to phrase 
> something on the web and you need it ASAP?

If I need it ASAP I usually visit related websites and best-of-breed sites to see what the common practices are (such as wireless carriers to look at "mobile" vs. "cell").


Hope it helps,

--Andrés.