Contact:cdent@burningchrome.com
Rosenfeld, L. & Morville, P. (1998). Chapter 5: Labeling systems. In
_Information architecture for the World Wide Web_ (p. 72-98).
Beijing: O'Reilly.
Instructions to web designers on how to create labelling systems in
their web sites. Discussion of what labels are and the function they
perform. Reminders to keep labeling systems consistent (in several
dimensions) meaningful by remembering they are part of a system for
which conventions must be established. Conventions that are understood
by the audience, or quickly learned.
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I can't decide about Rosenfeld & Morville: they are so earnest.
Underlying this chapter is a couple of librarian types giving the old
college try at convincing in a hurry non-librarian types that
controlled vocabularies have value outside the card catalog. It's a
valiant effort, but falls somehow flat. They do a valiant job of
describing categories without getting into the theory of
categorization, which would probably cause many to look askance.
The real issue, for me, is that articles like these do little to draw
the theoretical into the real world because they are so quickly dated.
Admittedly, R&M are trying to take something general and make it
specific for the domain of web architecture but what does this do for
us as students? If we need examples to make things real, use short
examples, not instructional manuals. If we are to learn, teach us the
principles. I look at web manuals and grow weary.
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