Blooper 41: Same title on different windows

Images from GUI Bloopers, by Jeff Johnson. Used without permission.

What's wrong with this?
Different windows have the exact same titles, which can mislead users about what function of the application they are using.

Variations:

• Window titlebars don't identify specific windows
• Programmer copied window code but forgot to change the title
• Programmer didn't know title was in use elsewhere
• Programmer thought the title fit both

Design Rule:
Each window or web page corresponding to a unique function of the application should have a unique title.

Special cases:

• Multiple windows represent the same function applied to different data - an example is a text editor viewing different files. In this situation, it is important to include the data name in the title bar.
• Multiple windows represent the same function or data with different user options - a factory monitor application might allow user to bring up several instances of the "same" window to let users apply different option settings to different instances. In this case, the convention is for the window title to end in an integer, separated from the title by a colon. For example "Factory Monitor", "Factory Monitor: 2", "Factory Monitor: 3", etc.

Related:
Make sure that if the window was reached by selecting a menu item, then the window title should be the same as the item text (i.e., confirmation is positive feedback).