Few Fact to Design Your Links

It is a fact that links have always been a vital part inThe second trait is not as important as the first one,
the internet navigational process. Depending on thei.e. underline can be eliminated in some cases like the
links and also on the content of the site that the linkone when an area functionality is absolutely obvious -
leads to, internet users decide on the worthiness offor instance, we could think of a site menu where
coming back to that site or not.everybody expects a content summary as a
One cannot fail to notice the latest trends imposedpresentation.
by web 2.0, the emergence of a new writing genreThus, you should provide users with sufficient click
designed to cater for the new needs and tastes ofability cues. Trying to put the cursor over different
internet users and also the transformation processparts of the page is time consuming and not quite
that search engines undergo."affordable" with a view to gain more traffic. At the
Broadly speaking, users go from page to pagesame time, it's worth keeping in mind that there area
selecting only the most important information or justcertain click ability expectancies regarding different
the information that is easier to spot; they need toregions of a web page; for instance, items on the
be able to make a quick assessment of the pagecenter, left, right side have a high probability of being
content, get the information they are seeking and golinks.
to another page.3. Use different colors for visited and unvisited links
Usually, web authors employ hypertext links toLinks that were clicked must differentiate one way
create or reinforce concepts: a list of related links canor another from the ones that were not; the best
serve as the focus of a site. The problem posed byway of doing that is the color contrast; links are
links has little to do with the web but is rather relatedsupposed to stand out on the computer screen as
to the concept of hypertext. A collection of linksmuch as possible; in this respect, bright, vivid colors
does not have the same effect on the reader and isare preferable - links should differentiate from linear
not as legible as conventional linear text.text in any case.
In the case of linear text, readers have to workConversely, links that were already clicked should
harder in seek of needed information. Links alsoemploy a rather pale and "washed" color. The effect
become a technical problem, because most webof using different colors but both at the same level
pages have a certain rank on search engines due toof chromatic intensity might result in a failure to
links. Links are to be used as a reinforcement of, notestablish a concrete content relationship between
a substitute for content.those links, users won't be able to tell visited from
What is worth mentioning when tackling the link issuenon-visited links.
is that designers are supposed to use relevant linkEven though some compromises would be acceptable
labels, give consistent click ability cues and also(like using other colors), using blue for text is an
differentiate links that have been clicked from thoseexception. Blue is a color with the most notable
that haven't.perceived affordance of click ability.
1. Use relevant link description4. Colors for text are to be avoided
Users' confusion must be avoided at all costs. In thisIt is recommended that colors should be used for
respect, they should be able to look at every link andhyperlinks only. Nevertheless, there are generally
be able to predict to some extent the destination orrecognized and allowed colors for certain words such
the website they are about to visit. A negativeas red for "error" or green for "ok". Technically
example in this case is using the label - Click here-,speaking, when referring to document colors, it is
which is rather confusing and does not provide anyadvisable that you specify all of the colors
kind of information about the link destination.(BGCOLOR, TEXT, LINK, VLINK, ALINK), to ensure
Another relevant case is that of embedded links;an enjoyable and legible composition. Find out more
when employing embedded links, the link text shouldabout choosing the right colors for your web site.
accurately designate the link's direction. Users have aThe main reason reinforcing this idea is that some
certain tendency towards ignoring the textusers may have certain colors set as default, so if
surrounding embedded links; consequently, it isyou don't specify all the colors of a document, they
recommended that you should not create embeddedmay end up with an illegible document. In addition,
links that use the surrounding text in order to provideeven when using a background image, you should still
hints about the link's destination.specify BGCOLOR, because the user may not have
2. Be aware that textual links do have certain mainthe image loading on.
characteristics like: underlining and color.