A preferred label is ideally a single word

A preferred label is ideally a single word, although sometimes phrases are unavoidable. Ever since humans invented language, they have been labeling things as a way of organizing and understanding their world. It’s something we do naturally. That said, it’s not something we always do well. The more thought we put into the labels and the more we consider how visitors will interpret them, the more straightforward the site will be for our visitors to navigate. Labeling for a web site includes not only obvious navigational labels, such as links on menus, but also page titles, headers, and keywords for searching and browsing. All of these labels are components in the site architecture, and all of them help the user to find what he or she is seeking. Think of web site labeling as analogous to creating both an index and a table of contents for a book.

The words that comprise labels are often ambiguous, and that ambiguity is further exacerbated by the need for brevity on web-based labels. In a conversation, we augment our words with gesture, facial expression, or tone of voice; we gauge if our conversation partner understands by interpreting the other person’s facial expression; and our conversation partner can ask us to clarify what we mean. None of this normal conversational interaction is available to a web site visitor. Consequently, web site labels must be clearer and less ambiguous than our everyday spoken language if they are to be truly useful. Devising labels is a process of fi rst doing a content inventory and then brainstorming for every possible label we can imagine. To come up with an initial list of labels, we can:

- Extract meaningful labels from the content for the site, especially from headers and subheaders.

- Peruse competitors’ sites for ideas.

- Consult the online thesauri with which some industries are blessed. Here, industry-specific terminology that just might make good labels is consolidated, defi ned, and cross-referenced. For instance, there are any number of online thesauri for the computer industry, as well as for other content domains including medicine, education, and the sciences.

- Check existing server logs to see what search terms your visitors used to find content on the current site, if one exists.

When brainstorming for labels, consider synonyms, abbreviations, acronyms, alternative spellings (yes, even misspellings), and associated terms. An example of an associated term for the word “pepper” might be “salt.” Associated terms are opportunities to provide additional relevant information or to expand a sale. For instance, an airline reservation site might present hotel and car rental links on the page confi rming a visitor’s airline reservation, or a women’s clothing site might suggest a pair of red shoes if the visitor purchases a red dress.

Preferred Labels

The next step is to focus the list in order to pinpoint the most concise, precise, descriptive, and familiar (to our visitors, that is) term as our preferred label. Both screen real estate and the visitor’s “cognitive space” are far too valuable to be wasted with vague or unnecessary words. By choosing an obvious term as a preferred label that we use consistently throughout the site, we are effectively constructing a controlled vocabulary.

A preferred label is ideally a single word, although sometimes phrases are unavoidable. The preferred label should be one that would serve as a good trigger for your audience, one that they would be likely to recognize. For example, a site designed for experienced gardeners could safely use labels like “annuals,” “perennials,” and “biennials” without explanation. Those labels might need explanation, however, if the site were for brand-new gardeners. If your site has a mixed audience, don’t use technical and non-technical terms in the same context. For instance, don’t use “annual” and “plants that return every year” (that would be a “perennial” to experienced gardeners) in the same menu. If your navigation system must accommodate both novices and experts, then it’s better to present separate targeted menus for each audience. Alternately, use the technical term but elaborate by displaying the non-technical description or defi nition next to the term.

Be careful with overly clever labels. Although they have the potential to be amusing and engaging and can add appeal to a web site, cleverness can also sabotage navigation. For example, if an auto dealership labels a link “Wheels,” is it referring to its inventory of automobiles (because “wheels” is a slang term for auto), or is it referring to actual specialty wheels that can be ordered for any automobile? If the visitor has to pause for even a moment to fi gure out the navigation or has even a slight possibility of guessing wrong the fi rst time, the labeling system has failed. In a choice between clever and clear, you should almost always choose clear. After you have identified your preferred labels, test them with potential visitors; have them tell you what they think the labels mean, just by reading them.

There should be strong concurrence between what the visitors think the labels mean and what you intended them to mean. If not, the disconnect needs to be fixed. Most web site visitors aren’t willing to read in depth when they’re online. Instead, they scan labels navigation labels, heading labels, subheading labels for any content that interests them. We’d best deliver clear, interesting, and relevant labels if we want to engage our visitors. The point is that labels, along with the site architecture, should help visitors find what they need, not erect roadblocks.