[Sigia-l] verbs in labels

[Peter Merholz]

> Does anyone have thoughts or references about using verbs throughout in
> labels? Like: "Adjust Personal Data" instead of "Personal Data". Does
> anyone know of a product/site that has attempted that?

I've dealt with this on a number of projects in the past.

My original inclination was that all labels (particular if there kin labels,
such as items available in global navigation) should share grammatical
structure -- if one is an action label, all should be action labels.

When we worked with PeopleSoft lo those many years ago, we developed a
task-based global navigation system. As it was task-based, we were inclined
to make all the selections in verb form:
 
 - Assess Your Needs
 - Find Products
 - Implement 
 - Get Training
etc...

Through our work, we decided that it would be okay to mix action labels
(Assess Your Needs) with thing labels (Training). One that we kept as an
action label was "Find Products."

Well, that proved problematic. Because users would look at the navigation
with the word "Products" in mind, and so were scanning for the letter "P",
and not finding it.

So, the word "Find" was dropped, and it was just "Products".

But we still had labels like "Assess Your Needs"... And you know what, it
worked great! (And, I see that "Assess Your Needs" is the one action label
that has remained, one and a half years later).

For me, the lesson was, verb, noun, action, thing, whatever, it kind of
doesn't matter. What matters more is that you utilize words that are likely
rattling around in your visitors' heads, words that resonate with them.

--peter