As a consumer I never really appreciated the fact that web sites have improved and become more user-friendly until I took this class from Bro. Robertson. In Jakob Nielsen's alertbox article "Guidelines for Visualizing Links" he explains the way links should operate so that users can navigate and so that users actually know that text is clickable.

Some usability guidelines that Nielsen covered are:

  • To maximize the chance that a consumer will click a link, underline and color the text.
  • It isn't always necessary to underline the text; for instance in navigation menus and other lists of links although there are some exceptions depending on the designers message.
  • Reserve underlining for links ONLY! There is too much confusion because of the standards of basic usability.
  • Use different colors for visited and unvisited links. Avoid coloring the text if possible. The article explains that other than mistaking text for links, the probability that a user is color-blind could be detrimental to navigation on your site.
  • To go off the last one, don't use your link color with other text. Again confusion is bad. Blue for text links is programmed in the consumers psyche as the way to go.
  • Don't make special color exceptions or visuals when the pointer is over the link. It's unnecessary. Less is more! However there is mentioned that you make links become underlined to suggest clickability by hovering the pointer over the linked text. That would be ok and will actually take out a lot of clutter if the web site and many columns of linked text.
  • Don't use tiny text for links. Like our color-blind friends, our older audience will have a hard time accurately clicking, or even finding for that matter, the link they need to continue on.

I love the feeling that someone has thought of simple way to make the web a user-friendly experience. I don't have any temptation of wanting to mess with the standards that linked texts have created. Keeping linked text blue when unattended to and purple when attended will suffice for me. Although I do like the fact that hovering over a link and having the underline pop up to confirm that it is a link is good design taste in my opinion. I think navigating a consumer to the main goal should be a priority in anyone's web site and I will especially abide by usability standards.