[Sigia-l] mixing apples and oranges and tomatoes

[Tanya Rabourn]

Laura Norvig wrote:
> I think the greatest confusion can lie if they are looking at a list
> of links right up front, and they're seeing Tomato both under fruit
> and vegetable. It's just jarring and *automatically* brings up the
> question of whether or not the content will be the same. My first
> assumption as a user, before taking/wasting the time to
> click-through, would be that the content *must* be different, else
> why would it be listed twice?

Yes, exactly, and it seems to me that when users initially contemplate
their options they assume that different content will lie behind each
label (when these labels are perceptually grouped).

Once a user finds the label that seems to be semantically related to the
item they're after, they follow the link, further refining their idea
of what that top-level label indicated by the options offered them on the
secondary page. (That's part of the success of the Yahoo style navigation
where the label is further refined by giving examples of what lies behind
it plus the "..." to indicate more stuff like this.)

<-- begin trashing one's own opinion --->
That does though bring me to another topic I like to contemplate -- just
because a user expects something, must it be so? Perhaps as with the
previous discussion on right hand vs. left hand navigation, little is lost
in not following the user's expectation? So maybe the argument that users
expect to find different items behind each label therefore they should, is
a little weak.
<--- end trashing -->

-Tanya
___________________________________
Tanya Rabourn <rabourn at columbia.edu>
[User Services Consultant]
AcIS R & D <www.columbia.edu/acis/rad>
tel: 212.854.0295