Comments on: Click here if you don’t know what a link is http://www.jeepstone.co.uk/2009/12/23/click-here-if-you-dont-know-what-a-link-is/ The home of Pete Jones Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:02:49 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: Olly http://www.jeepstone.co.uk/2009/12/23/click-here-if-you-dont-know-what-a-link-is/comment-page-1/#comment-988 Olly Thu, 24 Dec 2009 10:53:41 +0000 http://www.jeepstone.co.uk/?p=79#comment-988 Yes, sometimes you do need "click here" - but it tends to be a workaround at best. It was born out of the old "mystery meat" navigation problem. Rather than fixing the core issue of making clickable items actually look clickable, people used a quick text fix. My real issue with "click here" is that we're patronising users. For the most part, they're not idiots and we shouldn't treat them as such. They know how to use the internet. (The pedant in me wants to point out the input devices where you don't "click" as such too.) If your link isn't being clicked, perhaps it doesn't look enough like a link? Convention says they should be underlined in most cases (etc). But if it's not in body text, or it's the main call to action on a page, perhaps you should make it look like a button? Maybe combine the two somehow? Maybe the language isn't strong enough? You know the keyword advertising you see on some sites (usually with double-underlines)? That sort of thing drives me up the wall because it actively puts people off clicking real links. But that's a whole other issue. Yes, sometimes you do need “click here” – but it tends to be a workaround at best. It was born out of the old “mystery meat” navigation problem. Rather than fixing the core issue of making clickable items actually look clickable, people used a quick text fix.

My real issue with “click here” is that we’re patronising users. For the most part, they’re not idiots and we shouldn’t treat them as such. They know how to use the internet. (The pedant in me wants to point out the input devices where you don’t “click” as such too.)

If your link isn’t being clicked, perhaps it doesn’t look enough like a link? Convention says they should be underlined in most cases (etc). But if it’s not in body text, or it’s the main call to action on a page, perhaps you should make it look like a button? Maybe combine the two somehow? Maybe the language isn’t strong enough?

You know the keyword advertising you see on some sites (usually with double-underlines)? That sort of thing drives me up the wall because it actively puts people off clicking real links. But that’s a whole other issue.

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