I agree with Matthew that title of the article should be the link words in a
list like this. This approach has the added advantage that these words are
in the link colour and therefore they stand out giving the list the
typographical structure it probably needs. In this case the words are
factual containing key words that will attract people to the article.
But there are of course other situations in more informational pages where
one would put a link at the end of a sentence or a paragraph. The wording of
such links can be absolutely critical. Very often you need to persuade
people to link and you must therefore treat this link as your "call to
action". Jared Spool calls this the seducible moment and it may well be that
the link must really promote the destination content.
In this situation "more" or even a call to "read more" are really feeble
calls to action. Tell people exactly what you want them to do.
The link may have to offer a benefit or a strong reason for actually
clicking the link. By putting these words as the link the colour stands out
and therefore your call to action really stands out.
Eg "find out how quickly this can be delivered" or "try out the calculator
now" or "browse the database to see if you have won" or "find out if your
street will be flooded". Links written in this way are also very good for
people who are just browsing pages by lists of links.
And before anyone suggest my examples are too long I should point out that
Spool has researched link length and has proven that 8 plus word links
achieve their purpose.
Irene Wong
----- Original Message -----
From: "Matthew da Silva" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, June 15, 2007 8:21 AM
Subject: Re: Learn more, Read more, More
Like everyone else, I read newspapers online.
I personally do not like reading the first sentence of an article as a
kicker then, when I click on a link, getting the full article, with the
same sentence I've just read, at the top. It's frankly a pain.
My preference for a kicker is an attention-grabbing summary. This would
be much like a heading, and the subeditor would write it.
As to what text to use for a link to the full article, I think none is
required beyond the headline. The Sydney Morning Herald web page is an
example of a full-service and successful broadsheet using this method.
Matthew da Silva
Technical Writer
Communications and Training Team
Application Services Group
Information and Communications Technology
Room 348, Services Building G12, 353 Abercrombie Street, The University
of Sydney, NSW, 2006
Tel: (02) 9036 9091 Mob: 0434 536 772
-----Original Message-----
From: ACM SIGCHI WWW Human Factors (Open Discussion)
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of William Hudson
Sent: Thursday, 14 June 2007 7:12 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Learn more, Read more, More
Hal -
> You're designing a Web page, and there's a list of articles, each
> with the first sentence of the article as a tease. That sentence ends
> with a link to get to the full article. What should that link text be?
Gawry makes a good point regarding accessibility. The page needs to make
sense to someone relying on a screen reader. It is possible to instruct
most screen readers just to read out the links on the page (or, as Gawry
mentioned, to tab between them). In either case, links that just read
'more' are useless in that situation.
The best solution that addresses this is to make the tease text the
link. I wouldn't underline it if there is a lot of it in close
proximity, because that will reduce legibility. Use a 'jump' bullet
instead (something that visually hints at the presence of a link).
Regards,
William Hudson
Syntagm Ltd
Design for Usability
US Toll Free 1-866-SYNTAGM
UK 01235-522859
World +44-1235-522859
mailto:[log in to unmask]
http://www.syntagm.co.uk
http://www.designforusability.com
Come to our tutorials at HCI 2007 in Lancaster UK
- Old Cards, New Tricks: Applied Techniques in Card Sorting
- Ajax Usability & Design
http://www.bcs-hci.org.uk/hci2007/programme/tutorial/
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