[thelist] 'about' (was: 'Click here')

A. Erickson amanda at gawow.com
Mon Oct 30 21:31:34 CST 2000


Erika, I feel your pain. 'About' is so boring, so prosaic, so 1996 but...
what to put in its place? 'Info' is one that gets used a bit and/or
'History' but that can mean something else entirely. I think 'about' is
pretty descriptive but it is dull.

What I really hate are sites cramming all sort of crap under 'about' that
shouldn't go there such as the FAQ, Help Pages and Contact Info. Or, sites
that forgo an 'about' altogether but don't really give you any other way to
figure it out. Or, sites that don't have a lot of content or are ambiguous
and then have a single paragraph 'about' section. This is especially
troubling with sites that are selling something.

<ducking>Of course, in Canada, 'about' is replaced with 'aboot' which I
think is strange.

- amanda

> -----Original Message-----

> Another reason 'Click here' may get used: poor interface design or
> non-intuitive navigation.  Example:
>
> http://devex.allaire.com/developer/gallery/
>
> A sentence was tacked in (in my browser, even the font is different)
> saying "For detailed information, click 'About.'")
>
> IMO, the standard-issue "about" link is worth a thread of its own.  I
> use it in my sites, yet I always wish I could think of something more
> specific to my purposes that would be both descriptive and terse.
>
> Erika





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