Embedding links into your content encourages users to visit other sections of your website. Placing links into articles also gives more context and value to users.

"A common problem is that users do not understand where the link could go…"

It’s important to pay attention on the way these links are done. A common problem is that users do not understand where the link could go. On the example below, taken from News.com, it’s clear for most users that clicking on "struck licensing agreements" would link to an article about that. On the other hand, clicking on "Imeem", would take the user to the company’s website or to other news about it?

The New York Times goes one step forward making embedded links more understandable, predictable and user friendly. As the user hover over the candidates’ names in this politics article, the link label appears telling users that they would be taken to more articles about that candidate. Using proper link labeling improves usability and avoid confusion. (Mouse arrow is not displayed).

Driving users to full stories and content could not be that easy. What news sites do is to present headlines with some more lines of the article. This usually works fine, for example the New York Times use a good design: picture, plus headline, plus blurb.

But sometimes some content like pictures and video don’t have a proper text description to fish users. Of course, the image itself is a hook but if you add some descriptions to your media content in you web interface users will feel more attractive to click and go farther into your website. Here a bad design example, Yahoo! is missing the hook.

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I have recently found another way to make this blog available for mobile users. Feedm8 makes a mobile compatible version of your blog, it’s free to create it and free for the users to read. It also put mobile ready ads on your blog and share the earnings with the blog’s publisher (60% of the revenue is for the blog owner). But what I want to point out is the easiness of this site.

I landed to the sign up page when I clicked on another site, and the procedure is extremely easy, you only have to fill the shortest form ever with your blog’s address or feed URL and your email address. That’s it! Then you have your blog’s mobile version created.

The feedm8 design is not flawless, although the problems are not big. For example, when I was navigating my account I got this message telling me to click on the “Promote” icon to, obviously, promote my blog.

But I could not find that Promote icon so easily, it took me some time to discover that the Promote icon was a star with an arrow on it (?).

This how this blogs looks like on feedm8:

I like feedm8 because it is so easy to set up and use. They have done a good design work.

I got to Joomla when I was trying to find a way of having my personal web page updated all the time. I knew about several Content Management Systems (CMS) but I didn’t want to pay a license, you know, it’s for my personal web page, not a commercial site. A CMS is a software system used for content management, including text files, image, audio and all kinds of web content. You can use a CMS for several proposes, like in-company documentation, file sharing and as a wiki.

I was interested in publishing my personal information and keeping it updated easily, so I decided to install Joomla! on my server and give it a try. Joomla! is an open source project and it can be downloaded and installed for free. You can additionally download several extensions and templates for your site.

The installation
Installing the software on my server was extremely easy, no problem at all. Just put the file on my server and called the installation file from the web browser.

Using it
Well, it could take you some time until you get used to it. I have installed the last version, the 1.5, which has an extremely limited documentation – almost nothing -. Here is my biggest complaint about this project, I understand that Joomla! is a free software but if you don’t give the users a proper manual to give the software a try they might get confused and frustrated before they discover the great features this system has.

Customizing
I downloaded a nice template, then I installed and modified it. It was easy to install it but a little bit too messy to modified it. Basically, some things can be changed through the administrator’s interface and others directly on the code.

Finally…
At the end I got what I wanted, a good looking online CV that can be updated from every computer. You can check it here: www.alexisbrion.eu

I totally recommend this CMS. Remember that Joomla! is an open source project and needs support to survive, on money or helping with the project. Have a check, install it, play with it: www.joomla.org