Can You Think of a Better Name for FeedDemon’s "Next" Button?

Published on by Nick Bradbury

A few weeks ago, I blogged about how FeedDemon’s "Next" button helps you quickly blast through your unread items:

"This unassuming button marks every article on the current page as read, and then moves to the next page that contains unread articles.  If there aren’t anymore unread articles in the current feed, this button automatically moves to the next feed that has unread articles."

I get the impression that few FeedDemon customers know about this extremely useful feature, and I think a big reason for that is because it has such a poor name.  "Next" really doesn’t describe what it does, but I can’t think of another name that would be short enough to use as a simple toolbutton caption.

Can anyone think of a better name that’s not too long for a toolbutton caption?

45 thoughts on “Can You Think of a Better Name for FeedDemon’s "Next" Button?”

  2. @Randy: a short phrase is fine, as long as it’s *really* short. I’m not sure that “Mark Read” would work, though, since it does more than just mark items as read – it also goes to the next page/feed which contains unread items.

  3. What’s wrong with your referenced post’s title – Speed Read?
    Other thoughts that came to mind:
    “Quick . . . something”. The first “something” that comes to mind is Jump, but that could imply moving over without touching (or marking read) the visible posts. But I do think Quick is a good modifier to start with. Sort of a replacement for Speed – “Quick Read?”
    Other potential:
    – Burn (ties into the demon thing, perhaps? Something else along these lines?)
    – Go! (Press the Go! button…?)
    I don’t know if your toolbar libraries allow for it, but it wouldn’t be bad to have a slightly longer caption if there was an option to turn captions off, like Explorer/IE/Firefox have. It could be more descriptive for newbies, but could be cleaned up for experienced users to reduce clutter.
    This is why I don’t get paid to create UIs.

  4. The only words that come to my mind for this button are “forward” and “advance”.
    But I think “next” is still better, and is good enough for the most of us.

  5. What about ‘Continue’, because you’re moving on? But ‘Continue’ could also imply just moving to the next page.
    Maybe ‘Quick Continue’, to emphasize that this isn’t just a regular Continue but some kind of shortcut to a longer process? Newbies may read ‘Quick Continue’ and not understand it off-hand but the mouse-over caption is pretty descriptive: Mark Page Read and Go to Next Page (Ctrl+D). I think the problem with the current ‘Next’ is that it’s misleading: it makes you think it’s just a simple page turner when in effect, more is going on. ‘Quick Continue’ kind of makes you realize there’s more under the hood.

  6. @Jack – hmmm…I think I like “Speed Read.” I thought I’d prefer a single word, but actually having two words could make the toolbutton more obvious.

  9. “Mark Read” is probably best, and for what it’s worth, I believe this is the terminology that Google Reader uses for similar functionality in their iPhone client.
    Other ideas:
    “Mark and Go” ?
    “Mark and Continue” ? (might be too long..)

  10. PASS, FINISHED, DONE, AHEAD, FORTH, ONWARD! – Train of thought…

  16. I find the ‘Next’ button is one of the major reasons I use FeedDemon, I don’t like how NetNewsWire has the same feature but it only seems accessible via the menus (News > Mark > Page as Read and Go To Next Page) or using the keyboard.
    I see it as such a important feature of FeedDemon and how I use my feeds that maybe it’s wrong to just have it as a small button mixed with other less important buttons, maybe it should be moved to be a bigger and more prominent part of the UI, maybe moved down near Feed Date Title or across the bottom above the status bar.
    The buttons to move from page to page are already at the bottom yet the button to move on to the next unread page or feed is at the top, in fact I’ve only just noticed the ‘Mark Page Read’ button to the right of the page buttons, could that not be made more of and changed into what is now the ‘Next’ button.
    If it were to have more space, could it not change depending on it’s action? for example, If I’m on Page 1 of 2 of unread items it could say ‘Next Page’ or ‘Next Unread Page’ where as if I’m on Page 2 of 2 it could say ‘Next Feed’ or ‘Next Unread Feed’.
    ‘Continue’ sounds good if it were to remain as it currently is and if anyone knows how to add ‘Page as Read and Go To Next Page’ to the toolbar of NetNewsWire please let me know.

  19. I like “Mark and Go” best of the suggestions offered. Another suggestion: “OK, Next”. I never use the button, though, preferring the keyboard solution.

  22. I think Next is good (once you know what it does), so you may put a distinct name, because the button does something unique to the app (That does not relate to same action in other apps)
    “Neeext” It’s almost the same, but you will be curious about what the button do
    “Ready? Next->” or “Readed? Next->” are other possible names

  23. @Claude: “Pursue” is a great name. I’m not sure it works with FeedDemon (it has a different “attitude”) but I’ll give it a try.

  24. Immediately to the right of the Next button is an unnecessarily wide url field. So there is plenty of room to widen this button for a longer title. I’ve been using FeedDemon for about a month and never even noticed the Next button until you posted about it. If the button was wider it would certainly be more noticable. And – the FeedDemon icon in the URL field is eye-catching – so maybe that’s why I didn’t see the Next button?
    My vote for a new button title is ‘Next Feed’!

  28. I personally like “Speed Read” a lot. “Pursue” is a bit harder, IMHO it does not work so well in Non-US countries, because it’s a word not so commonly used, and at least for me (as a german) associates with Trivial Pursuit or a racing game. ;)
    Other suggestions: “Catch up”, “Progress”.

  29. I don’t like “Speed read”, as FeedDemon doesn’t read for me. I have to do it. And none of the suggestions makes it _clear_ for a new user that he gets “mark this page read and find me a new one”.
    I have a feeling this is change for change’s sake. Without a usability lab test you can’t make a proper call anyway, it’s just guessing.

  30. I’m not sure why “speed read” is even being considered. It just doesn’t communicate to me the nature of the function. People who haven’t been following this discussion won’t even know what it is supposed to do. There are several suggestions on the table that are clearer and more to the point.

  32. @Thomas: Welcome to the FeedDemon usability lab :) I’m really not thinking of changing the name for change’s sake – I just don’t think that “Next” is clear, that’s all.

  36. Hop? It’s not skipping, and it’s not jumping!
    ‘Trawl’ and ‘Wade’ fit the rivers-of-news metaphors, and are more honest descriptions of ‘surfing’ (with the amount of sewage out there :)).

  38. Zip Zap Next :)
    I do not like Speed Read as it sounds like setting the reality in quadrouple time.

  41. As one mentioned before, “Speed read” appears even more misleading than “Next” to me. “Next” at least is known from several other applications, like web browsers – “Speed read” isn’t.
    If at all, I’d clarify the meaning of the button by simply adding the missing noun, *what* actually comes next: “Next news”! Not trendy sounding or cool, but short and unmistakable. :-)

  42. Addendum: In my opinion it’s also not necessary to stress that the current news will be marked as read (like with “Mark and Go”). It’s immanent for and I expect a news reader application to navigate me to new (sic!) items and not come back to the old ones I’ve seen before.
    Just my 2c.

  43. Refresh
    Gets rid of the old and fills the screen with new. So “refresh” would work.

  44. I think that the placement of the button is more of a drawback than the name. I’d never actually noticed that button sandwiched in between the filter drop-down and the URL field. It might be better to place it at the bottom right of the window, next to the paging buttons and the Mark Page as Read button.
    Then again, now that I know it’s there, I’ll be using it a LOT, regardless of where it is… :)

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