Guidelines for Visualizing Links Summary
This article is about how important links and the sturucture and design of links are. Generally links should be colored and underlined, and usually the color is blue. There are certian times when it is unnecessary to underline links, however. For example, the navigation or a list of links doesn't necessarily have to be underlined because the characteristics of their other circumstances allude to their linking abilities.
If text is not a link it is important not to underline it or to make it blue. Otherwise people will try to click on it and will be dissapointed or confused when it doesn't link to anything. If you decide to use a color different from blue be sure to make the unclicked link color brighter than the visited link color, so as not to confuse people. Sometimes websites don't underline links unless you hover over the link. This is okay, but be sure that the hover-over feature doesn't bold your font or do anything that might change your word length and mess with your line width. In general, however, hover features make pages look cluttered, so becareful when using them.
For older users it is important to keep your links large enough to be seen. If the older generation is your target audience, all text should be larger than normal for their convenience. All of these things deal with the appearance of links and will make your site easier to use.
I plan to use this information to keep my website users happy. I don't want my users to be discouraged by information or visual graphics that they don't understand. I want everyone to have the same experience when they come to my site: simply and pleasurable.
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March 31, 2008 12:06 PM