[Sigia-l] labeling conundrum

[Stewart Dean]

>From: Samantha Bailey <samantha at baileysorts.com>

About what to call the main navigation strip of a website....

>However, doing some searching and poking around it's clear that web
>designers refer to the collection of links that lets you move around
>the site as navigation bars or navigation menus, but I'm not really
>sure about the average user. I know that in usability tests I very
>rarely hear a user say "navigation" anything--they usually just point,
>call them links or menus. I don't want to make a big stink and have
>the company spend a lot of money printing new documentation if this is
>a non-important issue--i.e., does it really matter if our
>documentation calls the top of the screen a toolbar?

I don't think there is a standard wording. Why not just use a diagram and 
use something like 'top menu bar'  or 'top link bar'   -   describes where 
it is, what it does and what shape it is.

Providing what ever name you feel best (and you have experience based upon 
your user testing) is somehow indicated rather than assuming.  So that's my 
suggestion - use pictures.

Stew Dean