Sentence case in user interfaces
The HIG currently say to use title case for headings and short control labels. Is it reasonably possible to change this to say to use sentence case instead? In English, sentence case is common and acceptable in all situations where title case is, and I think it’s actually the (objectively?) superior choice in all situations, for a few reasons:
- It removes ambiguities (dictionaries generally don’t even capitalize the first letter of entry headings, for this reason)
- It improves readability (due to ascenders and descenders and easier recognition of lowercase words)
- It makes translations easier (languages other than English don’t have its title case system)
- It’s easier to apply, since it doesn’t require thinking about what words exactly need to be capitalized and doesn’t require checking the HIG to know whether some particular kind of label or widget does use title case
Also Matthew Butterick seems to think title case isn’t appropriate for headings:
Don’t use all caps. If your headings are full sentences, then they’re too long for caps. And Always Avoid Title Case, Because Your Headings Aren’t Titles.
I see it analogously to traditional and logical quotation punctuation (#105 (closed)): there are two conventions, both widely used and considered acceptable, one simply theoretically preferable in pretty much all situations. If the HIG is going to recommend one, it should probably recommend the good one.
If existing apps adopt the new convention, that could cause extra work for translators because gettext is case sensitive. And maybe app developers don’t want to use sentence case and want to stick to title case. So I don’t know if this is worth doing, but it might be in the long term.