Which is easier to use: List of people sorted by FirstName, LastName or LastName, FirstName?

Question

If you have a list of people, is it better to order them by FirstName, LastName or LastName, FirstName?

Telephone books list by last name first:

Outlook lists by first name first:

Is one way "easier" to use than the other, or does each have a specific use case where there are good reasons to opt for one or the other?

Answer 1

The trivial, most general answer is that sorting by last name makes sense when users are matching based on last names and sorting by first name makes sense when users are matching based on first names. Of course, this gets you absolutely nowhere because the hard part is figuring out which is likely to be the case!

It's not possible to do this deterministically, but there are some heuristics one could use:

• Relationship with user: is this a list of close friends or complete strangers?
• Length of list: last names tend to overlap less frequently than first names and so are preferable for long lists (imagine if the phonebook was sorted by first name, you'd have to first find Benjamin, then search all the Benjamins to find Malley)
• Context of use: in formal or professional settings it is customary to use last names regardless of relationship (every wedding invitation I've ever received was addressed to Mr. Malley)

One important consideration, regardless of approach is to make that approach clear to the user. The iPhone's contact list is a great example of this. Names are displayed first name first but sorted by last name. To make the sorting mechanism clear, the last names are displayed in bold.

Answer 2

Always sort LastName, FirstName if any of these apply:

• Users are required to use their official (i.e. legal) names
• Users are primarily from a region where a small subset of religious names are extremely common (e.g. Middle East, Boston)
• Widespread use of ambiguous nicknames (e.g. 'Red', 'Skip') or fanciful [mis]spellings of first names (e.g. 'Dykota','Shyanne') makes sorting my first names all but useless.

Always sort FirstName, LastName if:

• Your user list consists entirely of western women who are tradition-minded enough to change their last name when they get married, but not so tradition-minded that they avoid getting divorced and remarried every five years or so. ;)

Beyond that, I'd suggest sorting the list by the number of consecutive consonants in the last name. Especially if the CEO is Mr. Szlykzak and likes being on the top of the list.

Answer 3

Personally I would sort by last name first, because people only tend to have one of them. First names can chop and change. I know a lady whose name is along the lines of Roberta Anne Daniels. Anne is her middle name, yet some people call her by Anne, as she herself prefers it. Other people call her Roberta, and still others call her Bobi.

People never, ever call her Roberta Danny though. The last name is a constant, the first name can vary.

Answer 4

You should give your users the option of sorting by either one.

Some cultures and people use first names more, and so that is usually the name that they know when looking someone up. Others use last name more, and so they should be able to sort by that.

Telephone books sort by last name first, because there is more variation in last names, and because in business (more in the past) people would only use their initial and last name. So J.Smith would be tedious (if not impossible) to find if it were sorted by first name. It's bad enough by last name already.

There is no universal best choice, so if your are doing anything electronic, don't try to make it for people. If you are doing it on something static like paper, you need to base it on your audience and situation.

Edit: If the question is about defaults, I would still say the same thing. You should ask your users the first time they see it what format they would prefer.

Answer 5

Their are many variables in this question. First there is culture: how are you used to see contacts? Do the culture suggest that we address people by their last name, their first name or in business by their company? Is it you, your family name or the company you work for that is important?

But there are more than business an culture. Your closest friends, do you address them by Mr Smith? Not likely. First name or even Nick name is appropriate there.

Then you got other parents having a kid in the same class as your kid. Do you label them as Mr Johnson, Mrs Jones? No? I label them Julie's mom Sarah or Michaels dad Steven. No last name there.

To answer your question there isn't just first names or last names to sort on. I think relations are far more important than first/last name. That address book supporting relation status would be far more interesting and useful for someone like me.