Blog 5

Blog 5

1.    What is the goal of a label?

-       The main objective of a label is to communicate effectively, efficiently and to provide a meaningful association for the end user.

2.    Why is labeling an important aspect of web site design?

- Web site communications are different from the real-time physical conversation between people. A well-designed labeling system provides visual cues to educate the user about new concepts and help them quickly identify familiar ones. In other words, label are the obvious way of showcasing a site’s organization and navigation system, or acting as those systems.

Figure 1 label as index terms

3.    What are the aspects of a good labeling system?

-       Labeling systems should be consistent, and meet the user’s needs and expectations. Wherever possible, label should use the users’ language, and should consider the target audience tone of voice.  The other aspects of a good labeling system include exclusion of advanced technical words/phrases, removal of clever labels, and avoiding company lingo.

4.    List and describe the types/varieties of labels?

-       URLs/Page Titles – A descriptive and meaningful word/phrases providing an overall title for the given website or page.

Textual Labels – The textual labels are further divided into several categories like contextual links, headings, navigation system choices, index terms and iconic labels.  Contextual links provides hyperlinks text to another web-page/web-site. The meaning of the contextual link is often described within the surrounded text, but it requires the understanding of surrounded text.  Headings helps in describing the information follows. They must be consistent throughout a website. Index terms often represents the meaning of the content. Index terms can include keywords, tags, metadata, taxonomies etc. to support search systems.

Iconic label – Iconic label replaces the text label, and acts as shortcuts to represent information through images. Although, the iconic label provides good website- view to the user, but a poor choice of iconic label can confuse the user about website navigation.

5.    Why do index terms facilitate faster searching and make browsing easier?

-       A search engine typically uses index terms like keywords, tags, metadata, taxonomies, vocabulary and thesaurus to index web pages. This helps in performing fast searches through web pages. The pages having connection with these index terms will generally appear on the top of search result.

6.    Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using iconic labels.

-       Advantages –

1)   Easy visual recognition

2)   Add aesthetic quality to a website

Disadvantages –

1)   Limited conveyance of meaning than text.

2)   Inappropriate use iconic label can cause confusion about the content the label is referring to.

7.    What is the purpose of “scope notes”?

-       Scope notes helps is essentially a specific type of definition of the preferred term, used purposely to restrict the meaning of the that term in order to rule out ambiguity as much as possible.

8.    How do homonyms and synonyms affect label design?

-       Homonyms and synonym can become ambiguous in terms of the meaning of the content label. This occurs because different context affects our understanding about particular terms.

Homonyms words sounds same, but they actually different meanings . (Example – Some, Sum)

Synonyms words sound different, but their underlying meaning is same. (Example – copy, replica)

9.    Why is it important to be consistent when designing a labeling system?

-       Consistency is important because,

1)   Helps user to locate the content flawlessly and easily.

2)   Educate user in understanding the labeling system pattern.

3)   Helps user to perform in-depth searches in web sites without any confusion.

10. Why is it better to have a narrower scope when designing labels?

-       The narrow scope provides following benefits –

1)   It reduces the number of possible perspectives of what label means.

2)   A narrower business context means clearer goals for the site, its architecture, and therefore its labels.

11. List and describe the key issues that affect the consistency of a labeling system.

-       Style – avoid use of confusing punctuation and case

Presentation – consistent application of font properties, whitespace and grouping

Syntax – use of unnecessary vocabularies

Granularity – labels that are irrelevant to each other must be divided

Comprehensiveness – labeling system should be well organized

Audience – voice of tone should be according to the target audience

12. What are the main sources of labeling systems?

-       Personal site – the site you are working on.

Comparable or competitive sites – look through your competitors website, examine your audience needs, and use the stuff that actually worked. 

Controlled vocabularies and thesauri – seek narrowly focused vocabulary for best results; take help from professionals in building vocabulary library.  Ensure the accurate representation and consistency of vocabularies and thesauri.

13. Create a labeling table for a web site of your choice. Comment on the quality of the labeling system. Are there any inconsistencies? How would you improve the labeling system?

- 

Label	Destination’s heading label	Destination’s <TITLE> label
Top-of-page navigation system labels
TrackMyOrder	TrackMyOrder	Zoxoro.com.au | Australia's largest online megastore.
About Us	About Us	Zoxoro.com.au | About Us
F.A.Q	-	Zoxoro.com.au | FAQ
Delivery	-	Zoxoro.com.au | Delivery
Returns	-	Zoxoro.com.au | Returns
Terms & Conditions	Terms & Conditions	Zoxoro.com.au | Terms & Conditions
Privacy policy	Privacy Policy	Zoxoro.com.au | Privacy Policy
Body navigation system labels
Home & Kitchen	Home & Kitchen	Zoxoro.com.au | Home & Kitchen
Pet Supplies	Pet Supplies	Zoxoro.com.au | Pet Supplies
Patio, Lawn & Garden	Patio, Lawn & Garden	Zoxoro.com.au | Patio, Lawn & Garden
Arts, Crafts & Sewing	Arts, Crafts & Sewing	Zoxoro.com.au | Arts, Crafts & Sewing
Mobile Phone Accessories	Mobile Phone Accessories	Zoxoro.com.au | Mobile Phone Accessories
Clothing, Shoes & Jewellery	Clothing, Shoes & Jewellery	Zoxoro.com.au | Clothing, Shoes & Jewellery
Sports & Outdoor	Sports & Outdoor	Zoxoro.com.au | Sports & Outdoor
Bottom-of-page navigation system labels
About Us	About Us	Zoxoro.com.au | About Us
Contact Us	Contact Us	Zoxoro.com.au | Contact Us
Vacancies	About Us	Zoxoro.com.au | About Us
Terms & Conditions	Terms & Conditions	Zoxoro.com.au | Terms & Conditions
Privacy Policy	Privacy Policy	Zoxoro.com.au | Privacy Policy
Delivery Information	-	Zoxoro.com.au | Delivery
Returns	-	Zoxoro.com.au | Returns
Warranty	-	Zoxoro.com.au | Returns

Choice of the website: - zoxoro.com.au Department Megastore

The quality of the navigation system is excellent, but needs important at various locations. The red text in the table shows the labeling components that require attention. Firstly, there is no page exists for vacancies. The page redirects to the about page instead of the required destination page. Secondly, warranty and returns page displays the same information, but both are displayed separately on the bottom of the website navigation system.

I would like to suggest some improvement to the website in terms of labeling navigation system: -

1)   Website should provide links to correct destination pages.

2)   Websites should use iconic labeling system, wherever possible.

3)   Websites should incorporate correct destination label for each of the page.

4)   Finally, the website should also work on their vocabulary and thesaurus.

Overall, the website is fully incorporated with a well use of labeling navigation system.

14. What are the advantages of using controlled vocabularies and thesauri as a source for labeling systems? Provide some examples of controlled vocabulary and thesauri resources.

§  Increased clarification and specification of the language and terms being searched.

§  It also allows standardization of the terms being searched.

           Examples include: -

§  Thesaurus, Library of Congress

15. Describe the three most important sources for creating a new labeling system.

-       Content Authors  - ask for authors suggestions about labeling their content.

Content analysis - use online software to identify meaningful terms from you content.

User advocates and subject matter experts – hire professional that ca speak up on users behalves.