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Re: Links in context - or not?

for

From: Jukka K. Korpela
Date: Oct 31, 2008 3:00PM


Peter Krantz wrote:

> On Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 8:50 PM, Jukka K. Korpela
> < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>>
>> That was my initial feeling when authoring web pages, and I still use
>> "contextual links" for _non-essential_ links, but I have changed my
>> general opinion on this. The way the human mind works, we first read
>> (or listen or whatever) the main content, as continuous flow, and
>> then we decide whether we wish to follow links to secondary material.
>
> I guess it depends on what type of content we are talking about. Jacon
> Nielsen did some research on this in "How Users Read on the Web"
> (supported by Steven Krug in Don't Make me Think). As I interpret it
> users don't always take in information in a linear fashion.

Well, maybe, but the question is where to put your links.

People get disturbed when they don't which link to follow. The cure is to
make your point. then offer a list of links to the finer points.

--
Yucca, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/