There are various existing conventions to give users clues about what will happen on clicking or touching a link when it is not a standard link to another page, for example:
- Single chevrons pointing right or down for "accordion" links that open out a hidden section
- File icons for downloadable files
- "Play" icons for embedded media
- Various icons which indicate that a link goes to an external site when this wouldn't be expected (usually some form of a box with an arrow coming out of it)
Is there any such established convention for indicating that a link points to a section (anchor) on the current page? (aka jump links, section links, scroll links).
I'm sure I've seen downward or upward pointing double chevrons used in this way, but I can't find any reference for this or any information on whether it or any alternative is widespread or performs well in testing.
This is for links outside of "On this page" nav blocks where copywriting or structural cues aren't an option (e.g. where you can't simply put jump links inside an "On this page" navigation block or prepend them with "Scroll to ").
Example cases could be, if a jump link needed to be within a paragraph (e.g. on a one-page site or in a long multi-section in-depth article), or in a table where other links in that column go to pages, etc etc.
For example, imagine a long academic article in sections where sentences include jump links like "...unlike the methodology for experiment 2, this has..." or "...as can be seen in figure 3.5, the...".
<current url>#<anchor name>
, they will probably jump on-page. Further, I as user, do not expect an on-page link (anchor) to tell me where it's pointing to (compared to download links, toggle links or control links where I'd expect a tooltip or label next to it).