I learned last weekend that those “Fog Area” signs on the Interstate are not very helpful. Either it’s foggy or it’s not, and by the time you see the sign you know what you’re dealing with (in our case about 50 miles of thick, soupy fog).
The web redesign project has me thinking about labels and navigation. Although it’s important to tell people where they are and what’s going on there, it seems a thornier issue to give people good guideposts to get them where they want to be. I just got a book on information architecture in the hopes of applying the experts’ advice to this conundrum (and a lot of other things)–I just haven’t had time to read it yet.