I have a site that I'm designing that will use a collapsible property grid on the right of the screen to display additional information about certain items a user selects. It is not always visible, but will have a "slide-out" interaction when it is activated.
Right now, the panel that is always visible has a label on it (vertical) saying "Properties" with arrows pointing in the direction it can animate. It spans the entire height of the page.
What I wonder is, from a UX perspective, do I need to have the label properties always visible? Could I have just an arrow protruding from the side of the page (much like this example here, except even less obtrusive).
The thought is that, since the sidebar is labeled when it's expanded, after the user clicks on it once, they'll know what the sidebar is and won't need a label. It seems that it's a much more clean and modern feel to have just an arrow or small indicator as opposed to having a label always there, but I don't know what some real guidance or perspective is on this.
I hope I have been clear, thanks!