Lachlan Hunt wrote:
Geoff Deering wrote:
Yes, thanks for that. I'm pretty much aware of these issues. My
point goes back to a usability issue and what users are used to
interacting with on web sites. It seems to me, and I hate to concede
this, that the "Click Here" phenomena has become a standard interface
label to tell users to do something, and if the don't see it they
make another assumption about that link.
It may look like a *defacto* standard, but that certainly doesn't make
it a good idea.
yes, I know that. That's from developers view, but what I am saying is
this type of label has meaning to users. I know it's what we are trying
to avoid. But I'm sure there are so many design shops who code like
this because of that.
I don't know... the way we do label things... like Podcasting...
Casting Pods??? It doesn't really represent the action at all.
It's not supposed to represent the action, link text is supposed to
inform the user about the content it's linking to.
yes I know. But what I am say is in this case it has less meaning than CH.
I'll be interested when I start seeing usability studies in this area.
I don't know of any usability studies, but as a user, this is my
opinion of click here links.
They create an unnecessary separation between the link and the
description of the content which only serves to slow the user down.
For me, a _click here_ link adds 1-2 seconds (sometimes more, in the
worst cases) to my thought process as I try to determine a) what I'm
looking for and b) what each link is pointing to and c) which link I
want to follow.
Compare these:
1. _Click here_ for more information about the monkey habitat at the zoo.
2. For more information about the zoo's monkey habitat, please _click
here_.
3. The zoo's _monkey habitat_ is a popular attraction.
For 1 and 2, after the user sees the link, the user needs to scan the
sentence(s) both before and after the link in order to determine what
it's linking to. That can get particularly confusing if there's other
click here links within the same paragraph, particularly in adjacent
sentences. For 3, as soon as the user sees the link, they immediately
know it's about monkeys.
So, from a usability point of view, _click here_ links are an
extremely bad idea.
From an accessibility point of view, it gets much worse for screen
readers (or any other UA) systematically reading out or listing links
on the page. Of the following, if your screen reader were reading out
links, which would you rather hear:
1. _click here_, _click here_, _this page_, ...
2. _elephant enclosure_, _monkey habitat_, _dinosaur exhibit_, ...
Yes, but you are an educated user. That is the difference. I hope that
WSG developers stick to their guns and this trend is averted.
-----------
Geoff
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