8 Tips For Better Link Design

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  • http://www.whyui.com Danny

    Very good checklist.
    Most important – provide link feedback -
    If it’s an outbound link, show it was clicked on the page it originated from.
    If its an inbound link (depending on the website content) change the link color when mouse down.
    allow the user to know his action was identified by the system.

  • http://www.ndoherty.com Niall Doherty

    Good list. I’d add one more…

    Always make it very clear if a link is going to open anything other than a web page. For example, mailto: links or links to PDF documents. Drives me crazy when these are lacking some visual clue. Nowadays I usually hover over the link and check the status bar before clicking.

  • http://www.photoshopstar.com/ Eli

    I once read that a good way to make links stand out is by making them plain blue, like the links in the AdSense skyscraper in your sidebar. It’s because blue links are/were the standard for so long, still is in the big search engines. Was my comment valid at all? :)

  • http://www.designvsart.com/ Alexis Brion

    Hi Eli,

    I think your comment is very important, in fact, it’s very important to make links look like “links”. In my opinion users identify links easier when they are blue and underlined.

    Thank all for your comments!

    Alex

  • fdog

    That’s not a correct use of “alt” attribute. Alt is used for accesabillity, not to give useful hints.

  • http://www.designvsart.com/ Alexis Brion

    Hi fdog,

    You are right. But please let me give you a further explanation of what I meant. Imagine that you see a button that is a UK map picture (uk.png) that is pointing to a better map description or bigger picture (uk_cities.html). I find two advantages for the user if you place an alt= “See UK cities on the map” attribute;

    1. Users having problems to distinguish what’s on the little button will get an idea as they hover over with the mouse.

    2. Users using a browser reader (for visually impaired) will get a description of the button (remember that in this example the button is an image).

    I think these points are good for the user in general, not only for the impaired. So, why not using it to help all users?

    Thank for comments!

    Alex

  • http://wakish.info Wakish

    Wonderful indeed! :)