[Web4lib] re: How to label the OPAC

[Drew, Bill]

Funny that a academic librarian would be talking about users over 30!
Also, the use of icons is problematic.  If you have to label it with
text saying "Find books and other materials" why use an icon labeled
"Catalog?"  Experienced users may already know you use the catalog to
find books and other materials but new users of the library may not know
that.  These are not dumbed-down terms.  I strongly object to the idea
that making the website easier to use by using appropriate labels is
dumbing down! Experienced users know where to find it and new users will
find it easier when it is simply labeled as some variation of "Find" or
even "Browse."

Bill Drew

> -----Original Message-----
> From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org 
> [mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Diane 
> Westerfield
> Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2005 9:29 AM
> To: web4lib at webjunction.org
> Subject: [Web4lib] re: How to label the OPAC
> 
> Question - why must there be only one label for the OPAC?   
> Why not have a big icon saying "Catalog" with a text caption 
> saying something like "Find books and other materials" in our 
> collection?   Or a big icon saying "Find books and other 
> materials in our collection" with a text caption saying "Catalog".