March 13, 2007
A really simple thing, but a really common mistake:
Make hyperlinks contextual.
A link like this makes me think:
Click here to register
When I look at this my eye is drawn to the link. But that part doesn’t give me the context. It just says ‘Click here’.
If a user is quickly scanning a page trying to find something useful to click on, which is how people typically read web pages, then using this sort of design will slow them down considerably.
Even the most novice web users quickly learns that links are clickable, you don’t need to tell them where to click - unless, of course, you’re obfuscating your links by not underlining them and/or making them a different colour.
So, put the context in the link.
This is much better:
Once you know this rule you will find hundreds of pages which could be so much better if it was used.