Besides organization, the other IA element we're concentrating on is labelling - the specific words we use in our headings.
When we run a tree test, we are seeing the interaction of these two factors:
| Organization | If a user can't navigate down to the right heading, it doesn't matter how hard we worked to make that heading clear. |
|---|---|
| Labelling | If a user doesn't understand a certain heading, they're unlikely to click on it to see its subheadings |
Some labels are dead easy to create, while others seem to get harder the more we think about them. What is it that makes one label better than another?
Here are some tips for
- specific, concrete terms
- speaking the user's language
- making headings clear (e.g. bus website)
- balancing brevity with clarity
- making headings distinguishable (e.g. bus website)
- making headings scannable (i.e. front-loading phrases (see Nielsen article - same idea as for links))
- combining related topics (e.g. foobar & bleem)
For more on this, check out ~web or book link.
Next: Team-sourcing ideas