[Sigia-l] readability and contextual linking

[Scott Nelson]

On Jan 19.2005, at 23:57, Matthew deStwolinski wrote:

Matthew: a nice, well thought out discussion of the salient points that 
drew from what just about everybody said.

> provides an additional method of discovery
> in case the subtle contrast didn't sink in.

This is key, and I think the conflict here.

Caveat: I love design - I'm a bit of a fanatic about it. I'm not a 
designer, but I date them on TV (as the saying goes).

Having said that, designers (at least designers for screen) are often 
more concerned with appearance than anything else. This is not meant to 
suggest that they aren't concerned about other things (such as 
usability) just that appearance can be an overwhelmingly important 
thing for them.

Discovery of links is critically important. For years, I didn't turn 
off underlining because it was the only reasonable way of identifying 
links in text. With stylesheets now mature and robust, underlining is 
best used in the manner I suggested, in my view.

But Matthew makes a very good point here: if nobody discovers your 
links, they might as well not exist. I'm sure this is obvious to the 
list, and I apologize to those who feel I've pointed out the obvious.

> 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.

Not that I've ever done this (although I may try it if the appropriate 
project rears its head) but the idea of providing both inline links and 
an external, side bar type of interface (such as the new york times) 
duplicating those links might be reasonable. This would give you the 
benefit of letting text flow smoothly, and allowing somebody a variety 
of exit points (face it, your article might be boring - mine have been 
:)

At the same time, gathering contextual links into a side bar *next to 
the paragraph they appeared in* would be an effective way of allowing 
someone to come back and find them ("Oh, there was that thing in the 
middle of the article....I can't remember exactly where...") after they 
were finished reading the entire article. By gathering them next to the 
paragraph, they're still semi-contextual, and retain many of the 
inherent advantages of contextual links.
--
Skot Nelson
skot at penguinstorm.com