Using descriptive link names will make your website interface easy to understand and more predictable to users. If users go to your site just for fun or if your site is for kids, hidden surprises could be OK. But if users want to find useful information in your site you should avoid the unexpected.
Verizon FiOS Internet site provides a lot of text information but they also have a link called “Experience FiOs”, which is a pop-up with video and sound. That’s annoying for some users. But others could be interested in watching that video but they miss it because there is no “video” link. This is an example of bad link naming:
Another example of bad link naming could be found at VCarious, a kind of social network for travelers. They give users the possibility to upload pictures of their trips but the link to the pictures is called “Visuals”. Why not using the hyper-standard word “picture”? Someone wants to confuse users…
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Disclaimer: with this kind of article I want to point out usability and interface problems some sites could have. Please do not take this as an attack, take it as a free advice. I would like to make clear that this design problems could happen for many reasons, including lack of time or money.
