[Sigia-l] length of nav labels

[Jared M. Spool]

At 03:16 PM 8/9/2005, Amanda French wrote:
>It sounds utterly weird to me that links of 7-12 words would perform 
>better than shorter links, which can be made to "pop" both verbally and 
>visually. Even 5-9 words sounds like a lot. I'm open to being convinced, 
>but I'd want to read the research myself. What report is it in? Or can you 
>give an example of a site that uses long links well?

It's described in more detail in this report:

>Designing for the Scent of Information
>http://www.uie.com/reports/scent_of_information/
>The Essentials Every Designer Needs to Know About How Users Navigate 
>Through Large Web Sites
>By Jared M. Spool, Christine Perfetti, and David Brittan

Remember, we can calculate the 7-12 words for the link, we're including 
both the underlined ("linked") portion *and* the associated text that is 
next to that link. (Basically, any text that supports the underline portion 
by helping the user understand what they'll get when they click.)

As I said in my message to Boniface, we've got dozens of examples of 
excellent links that are 1-3 words in length. However, the odds are better 
when you're riding up to the 7-12 word range. Beyond 12 words and the 
trigger words start to get lost in the text.

Lots of sites use longer links very well. News sites 
(http://www.nytimes.com/ , http://www.cnn.com/ , http://www.slate.com , 
http://www.foxnews.com ) are the first to come to mind, but I'm sure I can 
think of other current examples if I try.

These are some, more or less: (Again, some take advantage of the cumulative 
effect I talked about in my message to Boniface.)
http://personal.fidelity.com/products/funds/?refhp=pr
http://www.tucsonaz.gov/
http://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/planning?cmsid=P-362219&lvl1=planning
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/


Jared M. Spool, Founding Principal
User Interface Engineering
4 Lookout Lane, Unit 4d
Middleton, MA 01949
978 777-9123
jspool at uie.com
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