Navigation Labels: Clarity Versus Consistency
Discussing this site with a client as we prepare to recast his navigation system. This is certainly navigation you will not ignore.
One of the problems I have with the all-verb style is that, with so many directives in a row, it starts to feel quite bossy.
YOU WILL OBEY MY EVERY COMMAND!
LEARN!
GIVE!
EAT YOUR DINNER!
Strikes me as a funny meme: the notion that nav must always be all verbs or all nouns. I get the logic but, when it comes implementing a design in the real world, you get bent out of shape fast, compromising clarity for the sake of consistency.
Reminds me Churchill’s alleged retort to a fussy editor when sent a note about ending sentences with prepositions: “This is the kind of nonsense up with which I will not put!”
When it comes to labels, it’s valid to worry about the cognitive dissonance between an action a user can take (donate, search) and simply directing the user to an information page (news, events). But designers and clients can get hung up on this. No need. It’s not like some nav elements are in English and some are in Chinese. Relax.
Weighing it up, go with the helpful label rather than worry too much about the purity of the cognitive experience.
heather on 09 Feb 2009 at 5:37 PM #
Heya! I know you from the Creative Ireland site
(I’ve got the boringusername).
I’m curious why you choose not to use dates on your blog posts. It seems an unusual practice, and I hadn’t seen it before.
I love the site by the way. Thanks for the tips & tricks.
Sean on 09 Feb 2009 at 5:48 PM #
Hi Heather. Dates don’t seem so relevant here so I left ’em out. If something falls behind the times or becomes irrelevant, I just delete it.
Johnny on 17 Dec 2009 at 4:05 PM #
Funny thing though, you left dates on your comments, and now the site does feel out of date. I look for dates on blog posts to see if the site is actively maintained, especially when I am looking at a service company that I may want to use. If they maintain they have a blog, do they maintain it? If not, why have a blog, instead of static pages such as ‘tips and tricks’ or ‘white papers’ or ‘case studies’. I don’t expect you to keep those up to date, but by its very nature, I expect a blog to be up to date, or at least consistently updated (monthly, quarterly, etc.).
Just an opinion.
P.S. I agree with the posts sentiment, all verbs or all nouns is silly. Just be clear.
Sean on 17 Dec 2009 at 4:15 PM #
I agree with you but I’m a sad victim of my own success: the site is currently behind, not just in the blog department, but my portfolio needs to be updated too. Reboot coming in 2010/Q1!