[Sigia-l] readability and contextual linking

[Matthew deStwolinski]

Donna,

You may want to consider who is reading the text and what the links will
likely mean to them.  Considering the amount of text and the number of
links you're talking about, I would assume that the primary purpose of
the text is to be read.  A secondary purpose for some pieces of text is
to take the user somewhere or provide some additional information.
Expecting your users to have this type of use for your text would be
very different from a situation where the primary purpose of some pieces
of text is to take the user somewhere else, (e.g. a next page link).

So let's assume the primary purpose is to be read, but you still want to
draw some attention to the fact that something else is available behind
certain pieces of text.  I would suggest a relatively subtle,
non-distracting contrast.  For instance, using blue text (same font and
weight) for links and black text for the rest.  As opposed to the
examples at the beginning Bill Pawlak's "coffee talk" page, if the
primary purpose of these words are to be read along with the others, you
don't need to draw so much attention to them that they stand out at a
first glance.  Instead, if it's likely people will actually be reading
entire sections of text, a more subtle contrast can be used since
they'll be staring right at the text in question at some point.  So blue
text instead of red would seem to suffice, as would a lack of
underlining.

To emphasize the existence of these links, however, and help take away
some ambiguity of what the color difference means, I'd recommend what
Anders Ramsay suggested--providing an underline feature when the user
mouses over (or tabs to) a piece of linking text.  Since people rarely
follow their reading with the mouse cursor (as Scott Nelson mentioned),
this is unlikely to be much of a distraction for those not interested in
a particular link.  But since people do often move their mouse cursor
across the screen for various reasons (e.g. click on something, move the
cursor out of the way), this provides an additional method of discovery
in case the subtle contrast didn't sink in.  So we get additional
attention and reinforcement for those pieces of text for which the user
has our second purpose in mind.

Going a little further than the question you asked, I agree with Bill
about the danger (gasp!) of taking them away from the page right in the
middle of a thought.  And if they do continue on with the text for now
and come back later, inline links can be a little harder to find,
especially if there are a bunch of them.  Where inline links can be
particularly useful is at times when the reader would be otherwise at a
loss (e.g. confusing terminology) and they're likely to want help or
more information right then rather than waiting until the end of the
paragraph, section, etc.  If the information that the link provides is
relatively short, using some sort of pop-up can allow the reader to get
the information with minimal distraction from where they were.  I'm
making another assumption that since these are inline links that they're
typically expected to be a short side trip where the user comes back and
resumes where they left off.  If so, going to an entire other page
forces the reader to reorient themselves to a greater degree when they
return.

-Matthew deStwolinski 


-----Original Message-----
From: sigia-l-bounces at asis.org [mailto:sigia-l-bounces at asis.org] On
Behalf Of Donna Fritzsche
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2005 9:23 AM
To: SIGIA-L
Subject: [Sigia-l] readability and contextual linking

Does anyone have any opinions, resources, or research results on 
readability and contextual linking.
I went to visit the site of a previous client and I found some of 
their pages very difficult to read due to too many links embedded in 
text presented as paragraphs.  I would like to advise them on this 
and it would be useful to have some resources to back me up!

Thanks,
Donna
------------
When replying, please *trim your post* as much as possible.
*Plain text, please; NO Attachments

Searchable list archive:   http://www.info-arch.org/lists/sigia-l/
________________________________________
Sigia-l mailing list -- post to: Sigia-l at asis.org
Changes to subscription: http://mail.asis.org/mailman/listinfo/sigia-l