Years back, we at User Interface Engineering did a little experiment. We asked folks to search for information and items on sites they’d never been to. In advance of showing them the site, we asked them what terms they thought described what they were seeking, then we asked them to go to the site and find what the items. After they either completed the task or gave up, we went back to the site’s home page and counted the number of times the users terms were on that page.
On the sites where the users’ terms were present in the navigation, those users succeeded about 72% of the time at finding what they were seeking. Yet, on the sites that didn’t mention the users’ terms at all, those users only succeeded 6% of the time.
via Web Standards Sherpa – Stop Hiding Behind Products. Generic terms don’t help customers they just frustrate them.