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I'm currently working on an events website. On the events landing page, there is a list of upcoming events. Here is how each event is presented:

enter image description here

The banner, title and 'more details' button lead to the same page.

Basically, the user can click on 3 different links to access an event page, and I think it's pretty redundant.

Should I keep all three links, or just provide a single one (and if so, how should that be provided?)

4
  • Are they anchor links (i.e. linking to the 'Brochure' section of that particular target page), or do they all just load the page 'fresh'?
    – JonW
    Apr 9, 2013 at 9:52
  • Nope. The 'brochure' button makes the user download the brochure of the event. The banner, title, and 'more details' button lead to the same page.
    – Leo
    Apr 9, 2013 at 9:59
  • Ah OK, I misinterpreted the wireframe.
    – JonW
    Apr 9, 2013 at 10:04
  • I wasn't clear enough probably. Sorry about that.
    – Leo
    Apr 9, 2013 at 10:08

5 Answers 5

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Although it makes sense for the banner image and the title to link to the event page, their affordance for clicking isn't as strong as that of a button or text link. That you can click on the image and the title might surface with a hover effect, but a button or text link is naturally clickable. However, the image offers a nice large target, so for someone who has already discovered that it's clickable that would be very nice to have. So overall, I think this redundancy would be a positive UX feature. It's also quite common: just look at Google Image Search. Or Google News, or just about any webshop. enter image description here

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Links are used to make the things clickable.

  • Banner
  • Header Text
  • Button

Navigate to the same page. It's not important if we repeat the link unless it is more important/useful. We are often unaware of user behavior. So providing multiple links is preferable.

Following link may help you get closer to your answer:

  1. Are links with images more likely to be clicked on?

  2. How to indicate that an image is a link too?

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  • I've replaced the short 'Goo.gl' links you provided with the actual URLs. Please don't link internally using short URLs, they are misleading and don't give you any indication of what you're clicking. You could have been linking to anywhere for all we know.
    – JonW
    Apr 10, 2013 at 7:40
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There is a strong SEO argument for having as few links as possible on a page, particularly if there are several pointing out to the same page. The idea is that the more links exist, the less page authority can flow through any given one.

Ideally there should be one link (to an external page) per page, and it should be a text link (anchor text).

Of course, I intentionally use the word "Ideally", because it's not always possible to have such a simplified experience.

But if the performance of the destination page in search engines is a concern of yours, then yes, it's better to have one link than three.

1
  • Also for a11y, since tabbing through multiple redundant links is tiring and hearing many redundant links is confusing. One big link (like a "tile") that encompasses all three repeated links, if you can do it.
    – MJBE
    Jul 24, 2019 at 22:23
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I have noticed this happening more and more these days.

I believe this is a right approach, Image, Title and "more details" button should be links.

One example why I prefer this approach because it allows mobile web users to access the information with ease. E.G. The user doesn't have to tap a small button they have a whole banner/image that acts as a button.

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Look at Photoshop and Gimp, for example. Probably a big part of the Photoshop users could do all the stuff they need with Gimp and saving a lot of money.

But they don't.

Why? Because Gimp relies on abstractions to much.

Want to make something glow?

How about giving it a white shadow!

If you get in this "use a shoe as a hammer"-mode, everything works fine, but not all people get this. And I for one, don't want to think too much about stuff, that could be done easier...

The trick is to try out, what users use, if it doesn't get used, it can be removed. But you don't want to lose users just because they didn't get one version of your idea.

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