On the persistent menu on a web site I’m working on, I have a menu item – “View / Search Lists”.  Every time I look at this item, I feel bad… why?  It’s a lie.

What it really does is show the user the name of the lists they have.  So shouldn’t it be “Show available lists”?  You can’t search them.  You don’t view the details.  In short, the menu item is a lie.

I see this in a lot of software – like the blatant “Go to my email inbox” in Windows Messenger that really means “Click here to get pitched ‘add-ins’, which are also a lie because we want to change the model of this software to add-supported. We will compensate you for looking at our ads by adding features such as a link to a hotmail account (not your email inbox – your hotmail inbox) where we can show you more ads in return for functionality”.   I guess the second one is a bit wordy, but at least it's accurate (note: I have no issues with this business model, just pointing out the misdirection)

Not all of them are that obvious.  There's the “Folder | Options“ menu in windows XP that really means “Folder | We threw a lot of stuff in a dialog box that may or may not have to do with folder options“, but that's not really a lie... it's more of a massive misplacement.

There's the very common “Subscribe“ link on most blogs -- but it doesn't subscribe you.   Instead, it directs you to the RSS (or RDF) feed so you know where it is when you try to subscribe.  The list goes on and on.

So do we like to lie, or are we just bad at creating navigation for users?  I'm not sure, but I do know that I hate to be lied to when I'm trying to learn a new application / site.  And if it's not fun for me, It surely ain't fun for grandma, who'll break out the hickory switch if you lie to her again.