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ChrisF
ChrisF
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I'm not what you're describing is an improvable situation. You're dealing with a by-product of Fitt's Law: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts's_lawFitt's Law:

Essentially the larger the click areas of the item, the easier it is to click it. Your target (in the example above) is the word "revision", however it's target has been expanded to the light brown box. This is because the designer is savvy.

You can certainly still click the word revision, but when your mouse enters the box you receive the visual cue of the cursor turning into the pointer hand (mouseover). Now you understand it's clickable.

When I say it may not be improvable, I mean that hyper-text links are a commonly understood convention. Callout boxes, however:

  • do not always contain a link if they do contain a link,
  • are not consistently clickable
  • are typically design per the brand of the site which features them

In other words, callout boxes are not consistent enough to set expectations. They're designed to focus user attention on a message. If the designer is savvy and the alert supports it, the box will be clickable.

I'm not what you're describing is an improvable situation. You're dealing with a by-product of Fitt's Law: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts's_law

Essentially the larger the click areas of the item, the easier it is to click it. Your target (in the example above) is the word "revision", however it's target has been expanded to the light brown box. This is because the designer is savvy.

You can certainly still click the word revision, but when your mouse enters the box you receive the visual cue of the cursor turning into the pointer hand (mouseover). Now you understand it's clickable.

When I say it may not be improvable, I mean that hyper-text links are a commonly understood convention. Callout boxes, however:

  • do not always contain a link if they do contain a link,
  • are not consistently clickable
  • are typically design per the brand of the site which features them

In other words, callout boxes are not consistent enough to set expectations. They're designed to focus user attention on a message. If the designer is savvy and the alert supports it, the box will be clickable.

I'm not what you're describing is an improvable situation. You're dealing with a by-product of Fitt's Law:

Essentially the larger the click areas of the item, the easier it is to click it. Your target (in the example above) is the word "revision", however it's target has been expanded to the light brown box. This is because the designer is savvy.

You can certainly still click the word revision, but when your mouse enters the box you receive the visual cue of the cursor turning into the pointer hand (mouseover). Now you understand it's clickable.

When I say it may not be improvable, I mean that hyper-text links are a commonly understood convention. Callout boxes, however:

  • do not always contain a link if they do contain a link,
  • are not consistently clickable
  • are typically design per the brand of the site which features them

In other words, callout boxes are not consistent enough to set expectations. They're designed to focus user attention on a message. If the designer is savvy and the alert supports it, the box will be clickable.

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Dan Michael
Dan Michael
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I'm not what you're describing is an improvable situation. You're dealing with a by-product of Fitt's Law: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts's_law

Essentially the larger the click areas of the item, the easier it is to click it. Your target (in the example above) is the word "revision", however it's target has been expanded to the light brown box. This is because the designer is savvy.

You can certainly still click the word revision, but when your mouse enters the box you receive the visual cue of the cursor turning into the pointer hand (mouseover). Now you understand it's clickable.

When I say it may not be improvable, I mean that hyper-text links are a commonly understood convention. Callout boxes, however:

  • do not always contain a link if they do contain a link,
  • are not consistently clickable
  • are typically design per the brand of the site which features them

In other words, callout boxes are not consistent enough to set expectations. They're designed to focus user attention on a message. If the designer is savvy and the alert supports it, the box will be clickable.