What is "Yomi name"?

Oh for goodness sake!  This yomi business is simply nonsense.  (Even as I write this text in the reply box the word "yomi" has a red squiggly line under it indicating the Microsoft's own spell check doesn't recognize it!)  I too queried the term after bringing up HELP from being in my Contacts, "People " page and it wasn't even recognized.  For all of us, Japanese extraction included, who live in the grand U.S. of A. this term is nothing more than distracting and a waste of programming space.  It needs to be eliminated from the context for users in the U.S.  It's pandering to a teeny weeny minority in the name of foolish diversity.

And changing "Contacts" to "People" is so lacking in descriptive value that it's juvenile.

Thanks for the feedback. We have plans to move these terms down to the bottom of the box (in Japan, they'll be shown on screen by default), so that should help people realize that it's OK if they don't understand the term.

Again, while the terms are confusing for people who are unfamiliar with them, we think the benefit of supporting this functionality, and its consistency with the EAS schema (and therefore other EAS clients) outweighs the confusion, since you can simply ignore them, and most people will not click "+ Name" on a regular basis unless they're looking for a special field.

Stacey

"Your question is perfectly reasonable, Brian. I do expect my UX to be informed by my choice of locale and language. In fact, a lot of people feel that way."

I agree wholeheartedly! Someone in one of the forums suggested to Google "yomi" and I did. I got a variety of answers from Virtua Fighting terms to the fluid that comes out after **** ****!

I searched and searched and nothing I read connected the dots that a field on my English language contacts list would be needed to incorporate a different version of Japanese names.

At the very least, Outlook.com's "Help" button should include the definition as put forth by the Community Moderator Firedog without having to go to the forums for answers.

I appreciate the ability to add Nicknames, middle names, and suffix's but, if Yomi names and Yomi companies are now going to become part of the mainstream English language, at the very least, put them at the end of the dropdown box.

What I would like to see is the ability to add a 2nd company name in the dropdown box such as "Company2".

Your question is perfectly reasonable, Brian.  I do expect my UX to be informed by my choice of locale and language. In fact, a lot of people feel that way.

My issue with Outlook.com's yomi name UI is a product of two intersecting factors: They are unneeded by the vast majority of Western users (in my estimation), and they appear at the top of the dropdown menu. At the very least they should be moved to the end of the list for users with both a Western locale and language.

Noel made a great point though. America is a giant country with a single postal system, so it's easy to forget that the rest of the world is a much more diverse place. However, I think it's worth noting that most (if not all) of Noel's examples already work with the existing Live Mail address book structure. Nickname, first name, last name, postal code, province... these all take care of those use cases. I put Dutch common names in the nicknames field and drop most Spanish legal first names entirely. And with regard to Icelanders, Noel meant they don't use family names as a surname, even though most of them do use a p/matronymic surname after their given name.

I've never had a need for yomi names in my address book, if only because I can't type the damn things, so I just attach a scan of the business card in the tiny subset of cases where it's needed.