PRIMARY NAVIGATION ZONES
INTRO
REPORT
MAGAZINE
PROFILES
RADIO
MART
ASSIST
MAGAZINE navigation:
INFO
ISSUES
AUTHORS
SEARCH
Currently viewing:
Issue 7 > Don't click here: the art of hyperlinking.

Don't click here: the art of hyperlinking.

Jeff Atwood presents a visual guide.

I've often thought there is a subtle art to the humble hyperlink, that stalwart building block of hypertext, and using them effectively.

I thoroughly enjoyed Philipp Lenssen's link usability tips. I liked it so much, in fact, that I'm using it as a template for a visual compendium of link usability tips—the art of hyperlinking.

Ensure your links are large enough to easily click. When building links, if what you're linking is small, make it bigger.

If you can't make it bigger, at least fluff it up a bit with clickable borders so it's easier for people to accurately click. In the screenshot below, only the numbers are linked, which is a shame.

The first link is the most important one. The first link will garner most of the reader's attention, and the highest clickthrough rates. Choose your first link appropriately. Start with the important stuff. Don't squander your first link on a triviality.

Don't link everything. Using too many links will turn your text into noise. This works in two dimensions: excessive linking makes text difficult to read, and excessive linking causes deflation in the value of all your existing links. Link in moderation—only link things important enough to warrant a link.

Don't radically alter link behavior. Links are the cornerstone of the web. Users have built up years of expectations based on existing behavior in their web browsers.

When you change the way hyperlinks work, you're redefining a fundamental part of the web. Is this really what you want? Is this really what your readers want?

Don't title your link 'click here'. Don't even use the words 'click' or 'here' anywhere in your link text. Describe what the link will do for the user when they click on it.

  next page »

Page  1  |  2  |  3  | all pages

« PREVIOUS ARTICLE  NEXT ARTICLE »

ISSUE 7 CONTENTS »

Currently viewing:
MAGAZINE > issues > 7 > Don't click here: the art of hyperlinking.

You're viewing the un-styled version of this site in which the content is displayed without the design structure. This may be because your browser doesn't support the Web Standards for which this site is designed.
Please consider upgrading to a more modern browser—we support Internet Explorer 6.x and newer, Firefox and Safari; other browsers may or may not work.

[For your convenience, in modern browsers this print-version of the webpage should have links underlined and show the destination URL in brackets.]