There are some odd conventions used on websites. Conventions that have become acceptable and familiar over time as they’re continually repeated simply because there’s no better way of doing something or saying something. I think everyone will be familiar with the problems around using the conventional ‘Click Here’ as link text, but it still continues to be used because the alternative requires a bit of thinking about to come up with something in-context and meaningful. ‘Click Here’ is a convention strengthened by lazy production values, some other things are more complex though.

The problem I came across this morning is a prime example.

I’m working on a redesign for an existing site which has been around for a few years and is, in terms of sales and visitors, doing very well. Its current design is looking a bit tired and is undergoing a little spit and polish, nothing major really and nothing out of the ordinary. This mornings task was to work on the layout of the page the customer uses to access their stored account details, conventionally called the ‘log in page’. The page itself used both ‘log in’ and ‘login’ to describe the process of the customer identifying themselves to the site, so for the sake of consistency (and because it’d really bug me if I didn’t) I changed everything to ‘log in’. Then something struck me as odd.

When, in real life, is anyone asked for their ‘login’ to anything or indeed asked to ‘log in’ to something? What do those phrases actually mean and are they relevant to what you’re doing?

Well, logically its a throw back to the days when you were required to enter your name in to a physical log book, thus ‘logging in’ to a building (or mine, or ship or some such) but I would doubt the term has ever been used in relation to a shop, outside of the internet.

The issue is, there is no context-specific equivalent in the real world which you can apply to an online store. The relationship an e-commerce site is trying to cultivate with their customers is similar to that which you might have with your local newsagent, they know you, you know them, they know what paper to deliver to your door and know that at the end of the week you’ll pop in and settle up your bill. They just ‘know’ who you are. What you’re doing with a ‘log in’ page is recreating the real-world situation of the shop keeper recognising your face and recalling your preferences, address and how much you owe them. I don’t know if theres a name for that, if there is its not one people will easily recognise and understand, which explains why ‘log in’ is so widely used, but isn’t there a better term?

What about ’sign in’? It certainly sounds nicer, its more instantly connectible to the process of ’signing in’ to somewhere or something and its used almost as much as ‘log in’ is so people are used to seeing it (Amazon, Google and Yahoo all use ’sign in’) but it still doesn’t sit right with me as you don’t ’sign’ anything and its still not something you’d be asked to do in a real world store. A twitter contact, @SCRWD suggested ‘type in’ is actually what you’re doing and he’s right, but that sounds strange. ‘Access your account’ was another option and much closer to feeling right, but still not quite there. Its also a bit long for a neat menu button.

So what’s the answer? I’m not sure. Eventually I conceded and used ’sign in’. If its good enough for Amazon its good enough for me, but I’d love to hear other peoples thoughts on it and any other odd conventions you’ve come across – if anyone uses something better than ’sign in’ I’ll be very interested!