Chapter 5. Labeling Systems
Labeling is
a form of representation. Just as we use spoken words to represent
thoughts, we use labels to represent larger chunks of information in
our web sites. For example, Contact Us is a label that represents a
chunk of information, including a contact name, an address,
telephone, fax, email information, and maybe more. You cannot present
all this information quickly and effectively on an already crowded
page without overwhelming impatient users. Instead, we rely upon a
label like Contact Us to trigger the right association in the
user's mind without presenting all that
stuff prominently. The user can then decide whether to click through
or read on and get more contact information. So the goal of a label
is to communicate information efficiently; that is, without taking up
too much of a page's vertical space or a user's cognitive
space.
Unlike the weather, no one ever talks about labeling (aside from a
few deranged librarians and linguists), but everyone can do something
about it. Web site designers and managers create labels for the site
without even realizing it. Why? Because labeling is a natural
outgrowth of creating organization and navigation systems that sites
can't function without, and because labeling things comes very
naturally to humans. It's too easy not to think about labeling.
The point of this chapter is to get you to think about labeling
before you dive in.
Pre-recorded or canned communications, including print, the Web,
scripted radio, and TV, are very different from interactive real-time
communications. When we talk with another person, we rely on constant
user feedback to help us hone the way we get our message across. We
subconsciously notice our conversation partner zoning out, getting
ready to make their own point, or beginning to clench their fingers
into an angry fist, so we immediately shift our style of
communication, perhaps by raising our speaking volume, increasing our
use of body language, changing a rhetorical tack, fleeing, etc.
Unfortunately, the Web isn't sufficiently interactive for us to
know how well we're getting our message across. So, assuming we
don't have extensive user testing budgets for our sites, we
need to guess how the average user might best respond to our message
and write it that way. "Tell 'em what you're going
to tell 'em, tell 'em, and then tell 'em what you
told 'em." This canned approach is completely contrary to
real-time conversation, which is the way we're used to
communicating. Therefore, as a form of pre-recorded communications,
labeling is a great challenge for web developers.
Where does labeling fit with the other systems we've discussed?
Well, labels are often the most obvious ways of clearly showing the
user your organization and navigation systems. For example, a single
web page might contain different groups of labels, with each group
representing a different organization or navigation system: an
overall organization system that matches the site's hierarchy
(e.g., Resources for Dog Owners, Resources for Dog Groomers,
Resources for Dogcatchers), a site-wide navigation system (e.g.,
Main, Search, Feedback), and a sub-site navigation system (e.g.,
Submit a Resource, Annotate a Resource). So before you begin creating
labeling systems, you need to have already determined the
site's organization and navigation systems.
5.1. Why You Should Care About Labeling
5.1.1. Squandering Attention Spans
Rock music lyrics were still pretty simple
back in the early `60s. Even with folks like Little Richard
screeching "A-wop-bop-a-loo-lop a-lop-bam-boo!" you could
generally understand what the words meant. But the music matured so
much so quickly during that decade that it soon supported the rise of
a new pasttime: rock lyric interpretation. Serious brainpower was
deployed to interpret what the heck it was that such lyrical giants
as Bob Dylan, the Beatles, and Tiny Tim really
meant.
But those innocent days of recreational head-scratching have given
way to an era of abbreviated attention spans. Don't count on
the Web maturing in the same way that rock music did; that is to say,
web users are not likely to spend much time decoding what it was a
web site designer really meant by labeling an
item Info or Stuff.
5.1.2. Making Bad Impressions
Besides immeasurably affecting navigation,
labeling influences your site's users in many other ways. The
way you say or represent information in your site says a lot about
you and your organization. If you've ever read an airline
magazine, you're familiar with those ads for some educational
cassette series that develops your vocabulary. "The words you
use can make or break your business deals..." or something like
that. This may sound silly and a bit overblown, but after visiting
some purportedly professional organizations' sites that include
such terms as Cool, Hot, and Stuff in their labels, you'll
start to agree with those purveyors of vocabulary-improving
cassettes. Your organization has probably mortgaged its future to
create a professional graphic identity and presence in its industry.
Poor, unprofessional labeling can betray that investment and destroy
a user's confidence in an organization.[11]
5.1.3. Self-Centered Labeling
Labels
can also expose an organization that, despite its best intentions,
does not consider the importance of its customers' needs as
important as its own goals. This is most common in web sites that use
org-speak for their labels. You've probably seen such sites;
their labels are crystal clear, obvious, and enlightening... as long
as you're one of the .01 percent of the users who actually work
for the sponsoring organization. A sure way to lose a sale is to
label your site's product ordering system as an Order
Processing and Fulfillment Facility. (Another way is to feature any
label that includes the terms Total, Quality, and
Management....)
 |  |  | | 4.7. Designing Elegant Navigation Systems |  | 5.2. Labeling Systems, Not Labels |
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