[Sigia-l] Methods for determining label preference

[Lyle_Kantrovich at cargill.com]

PeterV said:
> I found this discussion interesting so I wrote a litte review and a 
list
of the quick-'n-dirty methods we seem to have used:
http://poorbuthappy.com/ease/archives/002818.html


Thanks Peter for compiling the discussion so far.

What strikes me is that all the methods discussed are ways for 
extracting labels or terms from users.  There are times when you really 
need to *generate* ideas for labels, and these methods are great at 
that.  These kinds of methods will help you understand how a user might 
specify something - as in a search query.  None of the methods will help 
you understand what other labels will work.

Imagine the following:

You meet with every one of your users and hold up a small, portable 
electronic device used for placing phone calls and ask "What do you call 
this?"
33% of your audience call it a "cell phone" or some variation of 
"cellular"
33% of them say "mobile phone"
33% say "wireless phone"

What terms should the users be able to use in search?  Answer: All of 
the above and any other synonyms.  (Maybe also broader terms and 
narrower terms...)  Presumably your search tool would have a way to 
manage synonyms or you'd use metadata to cover this need.  Not all the 
terms would have to be visible in the site content though.

What would you use for a label in your navigation, product literature or 
whatever?  The answer isn't clear at all, and things might get ugly if 
you try to use all of the terms.


Another way to come at this issue is to try and learn what terms your 
users would understand or recognize.  It's a basic distinction between 
user recall and recognition of the terms.  

I recently reviewed an application that was used for scheduling meetings 
and the vendor had chosen the term "Book Meeting" as a navigation label 
to get to the "schedule a meeting" screen.  Needless to say, 'book' has 
more semantic "clutter" than 'schedule' -- folks who don't speak English 
fluently would more easily understand "Schedule a Meeting".  "Book 
Meeting" sounds too much like "Meeting of the Books."  I've heard others 
refer to the concept of "Simplified English" or "International English" 
as a way to use the language/word/phrase that is easiest to understand 
across audiences with differing levels of fluency.  More on Simplified 
English here:  http://www.userlab.com/SE.html

So which term is the "International English" term for a cell phone?  My 
guess is "mobile phone" -- but it's just an educated guess. 

Lyle

----
Lyle Kantrovich
User Experience Architect

Croc O' Lyle - Personal Commentary on usability, information 
architecture and design.
http://crocolyle.blogspot.com/

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." 
	- Leonardo da Vinci