Questions tagged [hyperlinks]
Hyperlinks indicate that clicking on a piece of text or image will take you to related information.
361
questions
195
votes
13
answers
21k
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Why shouldn't we use words such as 'here' and 'this' in textlinks?
Over the years of surfing on the web I have found numerous examples of people saying that you shouldn't use the word "here" in a textlink etc. Personally I like the idea of using the word, because it ...
74
votes
5
answers
17k
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Why is it standard for a website logo to navigate to the home page?
Why has it become an industry standard for logos to redirect a user to a website's homepage?
Where was this first seen?
72
votes
8
answers
14k
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When should hyperlinks be underlined?
Have you noticed that more and more websites have removed underlines from hyperlinks? For example, the current beta test of Google doesn't have underlines on the search results.
Google, along with ...
58
votes
8
answers
23k
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Is 'Home' button still a must?
I was wondering if the 'Home' button is still a must on a website menu, or are users already used to clicking on the Logo?
There is a qustion on ux.stackexchange.com about this topic - Home button vs ...
56
votes
15
answers
26k
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What are the differences between buttons and links?
What are the differences between buttons and links?
52
votes
4
answers
5k
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Should a grammatical article be a part of a web link anchor
When hyperlinking a noun in a webpage (or in an application), which is a part of a longer text/sentence, should a grammatical article (such as "a" in English) be a part of a link anchor text?
I.e., ...
50
votes
14
answers
4k
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What part of overview item should be clickable
We're making an overview of whitepapers, videos and other resources. Me and the frontend designer are in a small disagreement over which part of the item should be clickable.
Should it be:
only the ...
47
votes
8
answers
5k
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What's Your Take on target="_blank"?
Web developers can apply this attribute to anchor <a> tags to force the browser to open links in new tabs/windows.
Marketers love it because it allows them to link to external content without ...
44
votes
8
answers
39k
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Should hyperlinks be blue?
I've built a site where all hyperlinks have the default colors: blue for links, purple for visited links. They turn red on hover.
I believe that always using blue for hyperlinks is a good thing, so ...
40
votes
5
answers
4k
views
Do users trust shortened URLs?
I've got some problems with shortened URLs personally; they're really easy to create and not descriptive, so it's fairly easy to make them link to malware. I'm talking about links like http://bit.ly/...
37
votes
12
answers
18k
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Should a full-sentence HTML link include the period in the linked text?
In HTML, if a full sentence is used for a link, should its terminal punctuation (i.e., period) be included in the linked text?
Consider these two examples:
<a href="about:blank">Watch the ...
31
votes
9
answers
3k
views
Are "print" links needed on a website?
What do you think, does a website for a general audience need a "print" link or will the users know how to print the page for themselves (using the browser controls)?
Some background:
It's not a ...
29
votes
5
answers
16k
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Why do read links turn purple?
Today I saw a post on Facebook that had this pun:
Clicked links turn purple because blue + "read" equals purple
Is there any specific reason why a link is blue and when it is clicked/read, it ...
29
votes
6
answers
9k
views
Do people use `jump to top of page` links?
I'm talking about links or buttons at the bottom of the page or screen simply linking to the top of the website.
Is there any data on that?
Are they used more frequently on long pages?
What about ...
28
votes
5
answers
7k
views
What are pros/cons of using buttons instead of plain links to download a document?
My company is using some rather bizarre download buttons associated with documents that can be downloaded:
It looks like these are abused anchor (<a>) elements which show up in a browser as ...
26
votes
4
answers
3k
views
Should I include the word 'this' in an in-paragraph hyperlink?
I have the following text as my signature in some other fora.
Those interested in Arts and Crafts, please Commit to this stackoverflow proposal!
Well, I read somewhere that hyperlinks shouldn't be ...
26
votes
10
answers
11k
views
External links: Whether & how to distinguishing them from internal links, and to open them
How do other IAs/UXD's treat external links & what are the perceived pros/cons of different options. Specifically looking for recommendations on:
whether & how to visually distinguish ...
26
votes
6
answers
3k
views
Hyperlink the verb or the noun?
I'm telling users to get something and where they can get it. Should I hyperlink the action or the destination? Which of the following would be easier for the user to parse and execute?
You need to ...
24
votes
8
answers
2k
views
Styling labels as links to "trick" users into hovering over it?
The title alone would probably result in a chanting "NO!" as the popular answer, but please let me elaborate.
Background
We have a table of items that represent something. Each item can hold one to ...
22
votes
7
answers
10k
views
Are tag/word clouds useful?
A lot of blogs or other types of sites with a lot of content use tag clouds, where trending words are shown and popular words are displayed larger. For example
Should you put a tag cloud on your site?...
22
votes
8
answers
2k
views
When should hyperlink text be used?
Should text links always be text or are there cases when it makes more sense to simply link the URL?
Examples
A text link might look like this: Responsive Web Design Techniques, Tools and Design ...
22
votes
7
answers
4k
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Nested Creation Forms
This question is about how to create objects in a relational database without a ton of popups.
I'm working on a web app that has forms within forms. That is, you can create linked objects within the ...
20
votes
7
answers
5k
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Odd click behavior where my users are clicking non-linked headings
Issue: Site users clicking the title tag of my website's product pages.
Over the last six months a total of seven percent of my customers who visited product pages decided to click on the product ...
20
votes
6
answers
4k
views
Does adding a click count next to a hyperlink enhance the user experience?
What is the main purpose behind Discourse's link click count?
20
votes
8
answers
12k
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When (if ever) should links be opened in a new window?
I have seen a lot of discussion on this topic but it all seems to be opinion based without any research backing up the assumptions.
It seems that there are times that it is particularly relevant to ...
20
votes
5
answers
4k
views
Menu with dropdown, root element clickable?
I have two options for a dropdown but I'm not sure which one is the best from an usability standpoint. In option (A) there is a explicit "Our services" link which goes to a page with general ...
20
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Is there research on whether users know how to open a link in a new tab?
When I was young and personal computers where a new thing, there was a study that revealed that many persons did not know what to do with a computer mouse and how to use the pointer on screen to ...
19
votes
8
answers
1k
views
How to determine whether links have enough contrast?
I find it very hard to distinguish links from normal text on Programmers Stack Exchange, especially visited links on wall-of-text posts. The colour scheme used is:
Background #fafafa (there's a ...
19
votes
3
answers
11k
views
What should the ALT text be for an image that is also a link?
An image alt="" text should contain information about that image in the context of the page, so for instance if you have an article about cats on skateboards and then a photograph of the cat on his ...
17
votes
2
answers
6k
views
Is "Read more" a good link text?
Excerpts of posts displayed on a blog index page usually end with a link saying "Read more", "Continue reading", or similar.
Now, it's very well understood why "click here" is not a good link text, ...
17
votes
5
answers
1k
views
Is it a good idea to add tooltip to some text that says exactly the same?
Having tooltips on icons and images is understandable and the same goes for small pieces of links where tooltips may elaborate to the user what that particular link would do. Sometimes, however, ...
16
votes
9
answers
828
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How to reference (and provide links to) online content in offline media?
Provided that print publications produced in-house and "physical" advertisements have to reference or "link" to online content, what is an accessible (in broader sense) and user-friendly way to do so?
...
15
votes
5
answers
8k
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How to indicate that an image is a link too?
I have a section in my website called "Techonology" that is not part of the main content where I put the logos of each technology used in the website (PHP, MySQL, Bootstrap, etc). But I'm searching ...
15
votes
3
answers
6k
views
Is there a convention for distinguishing internal and external links in a website?
From a user point of view, I think it is a reasonable idea to distinguish internal and external links. By internal links, I mean links that have the same domain name than the website displaying the ...
14
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Text vs Icon (Opens in a New Window)
Over the past months I have been turning small websites responsive and encountered PDF links that spell out Opens in a New Window instead of using an icon. I spoke to the client about using an icon ...
14
votes
3
answers
27k
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How to indicate this button/link opens a new tab
This isn't involving external links, but rather within a "single page app", we have some report buttons that should logically open their report in another tab (for printing, different layout, etc...) ...
14
votes
5
answers
793
views
Is it better to offer 2-3 links to access the same page or one single link?
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:
The banner, title and 'more details' button lead to ...
14
votes
4
answers
11k
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When to open link in new tab?
There are links, buttons, images and much more that directs users to new pages.
In my opinion, it should always stay in the same tab unless it's a PDF or download item. But when is it acceptable to ...
14
votes
6
answers
4k
views
headings as links
In a lot of cases I've always used headings as links (where they make sense) instead of a heading, info text and then a link
For example:
Finance website Here's some info text here about this
...
13
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Which anchor text variation provides the best experience? [duplicate]
Basically, my question is about where anchor tag links should be located.
In the specific sentence Click here to go to this site, what makes the most sense?
Click here to go to this site.
Click ...
13
votes
4
answers
3k
views
Change link color based in background color?
Our white-background webpages use the blue hyperlinks as shown in the image below.
Occasionally we have dash-bordered yellow information sections on a white webpage as shown. In that case someone said ...
13
votes
5
answers
2k
views
How should one differentiate links?
I'm making an app where one can read old English works, where I'd like to have two clicking actions:
The user should to be able to click on certain words which take a person to another page (cross-...
13
votes
4
answers
912
views
Should hyperlink text color be changed after visited
I must admit sometimes it is useful but i realy dislike it.
13
votes
4
answers
9k
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Use of Mouse-Over Paragraph Marker in Headlines for Permalink
I haven't really noticed this before, but it seems there's some fad where a headline on a web page would include a mouse over paragraph marker (¶) that links to a named anchor for the headline. If ...
12
votes
8
answers
534
views
A button with a link: understandable or confusing?
I'm working on a design of a touchscreen version of some web application. Since it's a touchscreen I would like all clickable elements to be rather big and easy to tap (it's a simple kiosk, so multi-...
11
votes
5
answers
515
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Should printed graphics of a domain start with www, uppercase/lowercase? How to make the user understand that it's a domain?
Consider a car used by a company which has "advertising" printed on it regarding the actual company.
How should domains be displayed on such a car? Is there any research regarding this? With a wide ...
11
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Why does MediaWiki put little padlocks on HTTPS links?
Does anyone know why MediaWiki puts little padlock icons next to HTTPS links? For example, if I put this link in a wiki article: https://twitter.com/harry_wood it would get a little yellow padlock by ...
11
votes
2
answers
4k
views
Should all links on a website be the same color?
I'm not a web designer and would like to know about link and button colors.
About links
Should all links be the same color, knowing that sometimes the background has different color so the links are ...
11
votes
5
answers
7k
views
What is the best way to show that a link opens a modal window?
I want to make the user feel that clicking the item will bring up more detail about it in a modal window.
11
votes
6
answers
410
views
Why is there a link to the current page?
If you are reading this, that might mean that you have opened this question (or maybe previewing the question). If you have indeed opened this question, when you click on the question title it links ...