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Good Links 7 Guidelines How To Improve Usability
ow you write and design giving the user an easy time when
your links is crucial to visiting.
your visitors clicking them
or not. Write them badly and they Don't mislead the visitor
leave, write them well and they
stay. Who knows, they might even Although links can look however
do exactly that what you created the screen-designer decides,
your site for. Following are 7 certain standards have developed
guidelines how links should be and find widespread use.
written to improve the usability Underlining a text for example is
of your site. a common indicator.
Do it consistently It is good practice not to
underline text, marking it blue
Visitors learn for example how a or putting an arrow in front, if
website marks the links or where is not a link. Visitors might
the "related-content box" can be construe them to be clickable.
found. Consistently adhering to
these established "codes" will The same applies to images. Many
make it easy to navigate and read users will try to click on a
the site. graphic or any other image. Very
rarely, they will find an active
Breaking these conventions will link - a tiny, but nevertheless
interrupt the flow. Such negative experience. Captions
distractions might be enough for have proven to be effective to
the user to leave. When creating add that little bit of content
a site it is important to define that users need in order not to
all the conventions and rules click on an image. And if a link
that are used. Consistently is present, it can be placed in
following them is essential for the caption itself.
just made was the one intended.
Show used links
Same thing applies to links - if
Marking which links have been a link reads "find out more about
visited is very valuable. It our services" the page that it
helps to quickly "tick off" when relates to should show the words
going through a site or helps in "Our Services" somewhere
finding this piece of information prominently in the title. It
from a previous visit. confirms the action taken.
Unfortunately, a great many sites
do not use this very basic Well written titles indicate
feature. clearly what the main topic is on
the page. This is very useful,
If the "visited" feature should especially considering that a lot
also extend to the navigation is of traffic directly dives deep
debatable. On very deep sites it into the page.
might be useful. On the other
hand it might confuse the Embedded links used to their
visitor. The navigation should be full advantage
a constant and change only
minimally. Links are visually different than
the surrounding text. Color, a
Match the destination with the markup or other cues denote a
link link. Something maybe even
happens before you click -
Clicking on a link can be mouse-over effects or an overlay,
compared to following road signs displaying the title.
in a city never visited before -
you are very happy if you get Everything is designed to draw
confirmation that the choice you your eyes away from the
surrounding text. If you embed to related documents, very often
links within a sentence, readers PDF files. What exactly can be
will very likely notice the link found in the file, the visitor
first and only later read your needs to figure out from the link
content. On first thought that is itself. The first step in
unfortunate, but it can be turned creating a good link to a
into an advantage. document is to summarize the
content. That gives the visitor
Since reading online involves information how he wants to
lots of scanning, the eye is proceed.
always looking for visual cues.
They can be provided by using The second step is more basic by
subtitles or in this case asking why the document cannot be
descriptive links. By creating a created as a webpage. If it is
meaningful link, finding the worth to be put onto the site, it
relevant information on a page is surely is worth the effort to
made easier. "Click here" is less make if searchable, fully
effective then "View a list of integrated and less work for the
articles about usability". visitor. Using for instance
PDF-files can make sense. Very
How to link to files often however, it is simply
easier for the developer to put
When linking to a file it is it onto the site - but not easier
likely that another application for the visitor to use it.
is opened and that the visitor is
drawn away from the site. Not Mark the external links
something that should be done
lightly. An internal link refers to a page
or file within the current
A great many times websites link domain, an external link usually
points to a site, housed on a on the kind of information the
remote domain. visitor will find. It could be
argued that sites with related
Although technically there is no content or sites who delve
difference in how the code for further into a topic might best
the links is written, it is be opened in a new window. The
common usage, even a w3.org visitor can more easily relate
recommendation, to inform the back to the original site. In
user if an external site is that case not only the external
accessed by a link. link, but maybe also the fact of
a new window opening should be
The rationale behind this is not placed with the link.
to confuse the visitor who is
getting used to the layout, Creating good links is vital for
navigation and architecture of a creating a good site. A link for
particular site. An external link instance is the only possibility
can either be declared by stating an e-shop has to have users put
it in the text, by a specific products into the shopping
icon (like for instance Wikipedia basket. If that link should be
does) or even by using the badly written or confusingly
"title" tag of a link. placed, many users would give up
before buying. That would be like
Whether the new site is opened in not accepting money from a client
a new browser-window or replaces standing right in front of you.
the current content could depend
About the Author:
Raoul Dobal focuses on usablilty and is partner of ADWIRED, a Swiss company specialised in webbased communication. Visit http://www.adwired.ch for information about services or http://www.iquse.ch to read further articles on usability.
Read more articles by: Raoul Dobal
Article Source: www.iSnare.com
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