[Sigia-l] Breadcrumbs

[George Olsen]

Chiara Fox said:
> The purpose of our breadcrumbs is to show where you are in the site
> hierarchy (we don't have Hansel and Gretal breadcrumbs that show the
> user's exact path). If you are on the home page, you are at the top of
> the hierarchy.

Since SIG-IA is busy quibbling over semantics yet again, <g> the term
"breadcrumbs" has always been one of my pet peeves, since it rarely shows
your path through the site -- that's what the back button does (mostly).

"Breadcrumbs" are really better thought of as "street signs," which as
Chiara says show you where you are in the site. Which is why they tend to
be most useful on larger sites, especially those with users who arrive
through deep-linking.

My analogy is they're used in the same way you use actual street signs to
orient yourself if a taxi drops you off somewhere in a strange town. (And
if the town's only a couple blocks long, you don't really need 'em.)

I doubt I'll change established practice, but just wanted to throw it out
in the interest of killing professional jargon and communicating better
with clients and colleagues.

George