Labeling Systems

Information Architecture

Labeling Systems• Labels are the most obvious way

of showing the user your organization and navigation systems.

Where do you see labeling systems???

Examine the labels used on United State Postal Service's home page. Identify each of the labels used and briefly discuss each one considering the following: Do the prominent labels on this page stand out to you? If they do, why? If a label is new, unanticipated, or confusing, is there an explanation? Or are you required to click through to learn more?

Bad Labeling Systems• Problems with the labels:

– Labels are not representative and don’t differentiate

– Labels are jargony, not user-centric– Labels waste money– Labels don’t make a good impression

Try cingular.com…..

Labeling Systems• Variety of labels

– Contextual links– Headings – Navigation scheme choices– Index terms

Labels as Contextual Links• Should be more representational of the

contents they connect to.

• They rely on the context / draw meaning from the surrounding text

• Examples of good contextual links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Pagehttp://netsecurity.about.com/

Labels as Headings• Used to describe chunks of Information

• Hierarchical relationships between headings is establish using numbering, font, sizes, colors and styles.

• Have to be obvious and convey sequence

• Examples: http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-rdf-syntax-19990222/ http://www.southwest.com/

Labels as Navigation Systems

• Demand more consistency in their application than any other type of labels.

• There are no standards but common variants exists:

• Main, Main Page, Home• Search, Find, Browse, Search/Browse• Site Map, Contents, Table of Contents, Index• Contact, Contact Us• Help, FAQ, Frequently Asked Questions• About, About Us, About <company name>, Who We

Are

Labels as Index Terms• Also referred as keywords, descriptive metadata,

taxonomies, controlled vocabularies, thesaurus.

• Index terms support precise search than searching the full text

• Can be used to make browsing easier http://www.sun.com/products-n-solutions/hardware/a-z.html

• Metadata: Invisible index terms/labels

Iconic Labels• A picture is worth a thousand words. But which

thousand?

• Frequently used as navigation labels (not good practice) for small sites

• Are more limited that textual labels

• Can be confusing to users• Example: http://www.expedia.com

http://www.brightplanit.com/

Designing Labels• This is probably the most difficult

aspect of Information Architecture

• Language is too ambiguous

• Can not assume that a particular label will work for every web site

Guidelines for Design• Narrow the scope whenever possible

• Develop consistent systems, not labels

• Style• Presentation• Syntax (consider using a single syntactic type for each

system)• Granularity• Comprehensiveness• Audience

Sources for Labeling Systems

• Your site• Gather labels in your current web pages and

look for consistency with the content and title of each page

• Arrange labels in a table for a more condensed, complete and accurate view of your site’s navigation labels

• Comparable and competitive sites

Sources for Labeling Systems

• Controlled vocabulary and thesauri

• Look for narrowly focused vocabularies

• Vocabularies specific to your audience

• Sources:– ThesauriOnline (American Society of Indexers)

http://www.asindexing.org/site/thesonet.shtml

Creating New Labeling Systems

• Content Analysis• Content Authors• User advocates subject mater

experts• Users

A lot of tuning and tweaking

Creating New Labeling Systems

• With Users you can use the following techniques– Card Sorting – Open/Closed card sorting

• w/o natural context, label’s ability to represent meaning is diminished

– Free-listing – list a subject and have users brainstorm words to describe it

– Search Engine Logs– Tag Analysis