[Sigia-l] Labeling: Nouns vs. Verbs

[locatelli at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/22/2003 9:13:34 AM Eastern Standard Time, Daniel.Drop at otis.com writes:

> During the recent conversation about persuasive architecture, I was led to
> view the web site for the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab.
> (http://captology.stanford.edu < TITLE="http://captology.stanford.edu>" TARGET="_blank">http://captology.stanford.edu>   ) They used
> a combination of verbs and nouns in a creative way for their navigation
> links.  They kept the type size of the verb small and the type size of the
> noun larger. Although it is just a single opinion, I found the interface
> pleasant. 

That's an interesting example, but what's interesting to me is exactly the fact that the verbs are much smaller than the attached nouns. That's because in general, nouns are more specific than verbs. For example, one of the lables on the Stanford site was "surf thru EXAMPLES." The word examples is clear enough to us, but the verb could have just as easily been "look at" or "browse" or any one of a number of other words.

That's why indexers tend to use nouns rather than verbs for labeling material. Context, of course, is vitally important, however. In the case of an e-commerce site, for example, you do want to lead people quickly to the ordering process. So an "order" label is perfectly acceptable in that case.

You need to consider, too, the actual content the label points to. Is it information? Then a noun will probably work best for the label. Is it a process? Then a verb will probably be best, as long as it provides a good "scent" and is clear in the context of the other labels around it.

Fred Leise
Information Architect/Metadata Designer/Indexer
www.contextualanalysis.com