Chapter 6. Labeling Systems

What we'll cover:

What labeling is and why it's important

Common types of labels

Guidelines for developing labels

Developing labels: borrowing from existing sources or starting from scratch

Labeling is a form of representation. Just as we use spoken words to represent concepts and 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 content, often including a contact name, an address, and telephone, fax, and email information. You cannot present all this information quickly and effectively on an already crowded web page without overwhelming impatient users who might not actually need that information. Instead, a label like "Contact Us" works as a shortcut that triggers 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 to get more contact information. So the goal of a label is to communicate information efficiently; that is, to convey meaning without taking up too much of a page's vertical space or a user's cognitive space.

Unlike the weather, hardly anyone ever talks about labeling (aside from a few deranged librarians, linguists, journalists, and, increasingly, information architects), but everyone can do something about it. In fact, we are doing something about it, albeit unconsciously: anyone developing content or an architecture for a web site is creating labels without even realizing it. And our label creation goes far beyond our web sites; ever since Adam named the animals, labeling has been one of the things that make us human. Spoken language is essentially a labeling system for concepts and things. Perhaps because we constantly label, we take the act of labeling for granted. That's why the labeling on web sites is often poor, and users suffer the consequences. This chapter provides some advice on how to think through a site's labeling before diving into implementation.

How does labeling fit with the other systems we've discussed? Well, labels are often the most obvious way to clearly show 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. Examples include labels that match the site's organization system (e.g., Home/Home Office, Small Business, Medium & Large Business, Government, Health Care), a site-wide navigation system (e.g., Main, Search, Feedback), and a subsite navigation system (e.g., Add to Cart, Enter Billing Information, Confirm Purchase).