Does a consistent size matter for a collection of buttons
I'm a developer working on an app in which we have a collection of categories. Within each category theres a collection of text buttons which correspond to filters applied to a set of data. We're currently in the midst of discussing whether it's important to keep the hitzone size consistent for all of the filter buttons. This runs the risk of truncating the button labels especially once we get to localization. To illustrate, here's some ascii art:
Option 1:
|-----------------------------------------------------------|
| | | | | | | | | | |
|-----------------------------------------------------------|
| |
| button1 buttonlongerthanprevious button3 button4 |
| |
| buttonlongerthanprevious button5 button6 button7 |
| |
|-----------------------------------------------------------|
Option 2:
|-----------------------------------------------------------|
| | | | | | | | | | |
|-----------------------------------------------------------|
| |
| button1 button2 button3 button4 |
| |
| buttonlong... buttonlong... buttonlong... buttonlong... |
| |
|-----------------------------------------------------------|
In the first example, the hitzone would be a padded area around the text. In the second example, it would take up exactly 1/4th the screen. Which of these alternatives is the correct one? Is there value in keeping hitzone sizes consistent at the cost of possibly truncating some of the labels?