Website Design Guideline #8: Applying User-Centric Labeling and Language

ARTICLE SNIPPET - Far Too Many Websites Use Labels and Language that are Better Understood by the Site's Sponsoring Organization than by its Audience.

Usability and design are two key factors in publishing great websites. You may have a clear strategy and great content, but if your site is unusable and unattractive, it will be difficult for users to find what they're looking for, difficult for you to get users to do what you want them to do and difficult to get users to become loyal customers and revisit again and again.

Creating user-friendly websites begins by following the 14 Mequoda Website Design Guidelines for successful website design. By reviewing a site's score for each of the 14 items, along with the overall average score, the areas of the site that operate well, and those that need work, become evident.

In this chapter of Website Design for Publishers and Authors, we take a close look at Guideline # 8: Applying User-Centric Labeling and Language.

• Labels should be simple and easy to understand—that is, plain English.
• Their purpose is to help users find the information they want or get directly to a particular area of the site.
• No matter how appropriate the labels seem to the site owner, jargon should not be used as navigation labels.
• The easiest way to determine which words to use to describe the various departments, sections and categories on a website is simply to ask: "What would a user call this?"
• At the end of the day, the only words that will work are those that the intended users associate with what they are trying to find at the site.

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