Linking (10 links)
More General Topic(s): Issues (18)
Links within a site and betwen sites are crucial in the hypertext web.
Many of the other items in Usable Web talk about links. For example, most of the guidelines include advice on doing links well. The items here focus on linking.
Also includes designing URLs to be usable.
Broken Links and Poor Information Architecture Design
http://www.clickz.com/design/site_design/article.php/875591
Time for IAs to be "written in stone" and not on beer mats.
I guess that makes me qualified to do IA work: "This information architecture was written (by) InStone".
Destination: ClickZ (31)
Author:
McGovern, Gerry (3)
Find more like this
August 30, 2001
Making URLs accessible
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/us-cranky8.html
Use reasonable naming schemes.
Destination: IBM (9)
Author:
Seebach, Peter (2)
Find more like this
June 15, 2001
No Weak Links
http://www.smartisans.com/no_weak_links.htm
23 ways to reduce usability with links.
Some of the ways to make weak links:
- Broken
- Embedded
- Ambiguous
- Orphaned (although I would say the page is orphaned, not the link)
- Indistinguishable
- Unfocused
- Miscolored
I would probably add another one, where you link to a page deep inside a site but it does not provide enough context for users to figure out where they are. This happens a lot when the page you want to link to is buried within frames and you are forced to link to the un-framed page. You can provide some context at your end (the link), but if the destination page does not provide its own "where am I", then it makes your site look bad, too.
Constance Petersen's UI Design column "Designing Ways".
Destination: Designing Ways (10)
Author:
Petersen, Constance (10)
Find more like this
November 26, 1999
Are You Creating a Path of Resistance?
http://webword.com/moving/path.html
Forcing the use of 'www' is a minor usability hurdle.
Destination: WebWord (25)
Author:
Rhodes, John (13)
Find more like this
October 6, 1999
When to Link Out of Your Site
http://webword.com/moving/linkout.html
Destination: WebWord (25)
Author:
Rhodes, John (13)
Find more like this
June 5, 1999
Fighting Linkrot
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/980614.html
Importance of keeping old URLs working.
Broken links threaten to dissolve the freely-linked nature of the Web. Two ways to keep the Web freer from linkrot:
- Check outgoing links from your site
- Keep your URLs working for others to point to
June 14, 1998, Alertbox.
Destination: Alertbox (101)
Author:
Nielsen, Jakob (116)
Find more like this
June 21, 1998
Link Titles help Users Predict where they are Going
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/980111.html
Advice for using title attribute of A tag to keep users from getting lost.
Although it was part of the HTML 2.0 specification, browsers are just starting to take advantage of the title attribute of the A tag, usually showing it in a pop-up field after the user has pointed to the link.
To help users figure out what each link will lead to, you should use this feature to tell people what site a link leads to or what kind of information a destination page contains.
Be sure not to merely repeat status bar content or the link text! I already see too many sites that use Javascript to wipe out the status bar with a copy of the same text in the link. Now those people will give me a third copy of the same thing in a pop-up window. Arg.
January 11, 1998, Alertbox by Jakob Nielsen.
Destination: Alertbox (101)
Author:
Nielsen, Jakob (116)
Find more like this
January 13, 1998
Link Types: a Second Look
http://www.eastgate.com/HypertextNow/archives/Trigg.html
Taxonomy of link types from hypermedia research days.
Mark Bernstein takes a look at Randy Trigg's 1983 thesis on link types and adds comments on the need for multivalent messages.
The Web infrastructure does not yet support typed links, of course. Trigg's taxonomy is still interesting to help you think about particular link types for particular Web applications, however.
Topic:
Hypermedia (10)
Destination: HypertextNOW (6)
Author:
Bernstein, Mark (7)
Find more like this
October 31, 1997
Showing Links
http://www.eastgate.com/HypertextNow/archives/ShowingLinks.html
How do we make links visible, without making them distracting?
Colored links can be considered a design error, but Mark Bernstein gives some advice on how to live with the mistake.
He also provides an historical note on showing links from the past hypermedia systems.
Destination: HypertextNOW (6)
Author:
Bernstein, Mark (7)
Find more like this
October 31, 1997
Defying Akscyn's Law
http://www.eastgate.com/HypertextNow/archives/Akscyn.html
Research on importance of swift link traversal.
Old research says 1/4 second is the right amount of time for going from one place to the next in hypertext.
Topic:
Speed (10)
Destination: HypertextNOW (6)
Author:
Bernstein, Mark (7)
Find more like this
January 16, 1997
