inventory
lines design only

Labels

: are the names that you use for: Titles, Headings, Subheading, Navigation - Menus, Textual Links, Indexes and File names. Labels should follow the lead of the organizational scheme.

First and foremost the labels that are used must be familiar to your user and used in a consistent manner throughout the site. Some familiar navigation labels are:

Menus & Textual Links

All menus should always be clear and obvious. Textual links should stand out from the rest of the copy and be underlined.

Files

Whenever possible the file name of any page should match the name of the page. File names for all media should indicate the subject. When using more than one word for a file name do not use the underscore or camelCase as these will not be read correctly by the search engines you need to include a dash so that the names will be read separately.

Headings Labels

are used with the tags h1 - h6. h1 should be used as the title of the page (section or article if you are using html5) and you should be using at least h2 for your subtitles. Headings should clearly indicate the nature of the associated text. The importance of your choice of headings is twofold, first most web users scan the page and only stop to read if a heading has caught their attention. Witty or clever titles are often fun and interesting but if they stop the user in their tracks they are useless. Headings are also important for accessibility for the blind or visually impaired user. Video demonstration of Jaws reading headings for the blind.

Labels for Indexing

includes the title tag, meta tags for keywords and description and the keywords sprinkled throughout your site. Headings also play a part in SEO. Careful consideration needs to be given to the choice of these labels to obtain the optimum postioning within the Search Engine results. Also see SEO.

Iconic Labels

can represent links and information but they are rarely used for the entire navigation system because they consitute a very limited language. Icons that are familiar to all and are used frequently within websites are the ones that

represent shopping carts, email and home:
site icons, home, cart and email

icons that represent leading web companies and social sites are also used frequently:
social icons