Re: Link text in HTML help systems

["Daniel Kamman, Information Consultant" <danielkamman -at- information-consultant -dot- com>]

John Garison asked
Which would you prefer
<ul>Click here</ul> for more information about specifying goal dates
or
See <ul>About Goal Dates</ul> for more information on the rules and
effects of specifying goal dates.
---------------
<ul>About Goal Dates</ul>.

Jakob Nielsen, Designing Web Usability, page 55, writes
"The oldest web design rule is to avoid using "Click Here" as the anchor
text for a hypertext link. There are two reasons for this rule. First, only
mouse-using visitors do in fact click, whereas disabled users or users with
a touch-screen or other alternative device don't click.  Second, the words
"Click" and "Here" are hardly information-carrying and, as such, should not
be used as a design element that attracts the user's attention . . .
Underlining the words that matter is important, but even better would be to
include text that provides a short summary of what kind of additional
information is available . . . the actual hypertext anchor should be no more
than two to four words long . . ."

Daniel Kamman, Information Consultant and Copyeditor
Cambridge, MA, USA
www.information-consultant.com
Information problems found and fixed.



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