Blog User Experience question, how do you expect a link to behave?

If you visit the site, rather than the feed, you many have noticed I’ve been tweaking the design a little. This is the first stage of a whole site make-over but it’s going take a while. I spent about 45 minutes just mucking around with link colours! * Sounds like a trivial thing, but what UX should a link provide?

• Should a link you haven’t visited be light or dark?
• When you’ve visited should it change state and/or colour.
• Should it be underlined? That’s the old standard but does it matter these days?

Looking around I found all sorts of combinations. I thought I had it sorted until I looked at the colours on an LCD screen, vs monitor, and started again. Currently all the links are Bold & Blue, when visited they go Grey, all turn Red when you hover and are not (changed that last night) underlined. Is this readable, does it make sense?

The other debate is “Open in new tab/window” vs the same tab. I have generally have links opening in the same window as it gives the user the option to Right Click > New if they choose. Is this what you’d expect/prefer?

Pity the poor souls who have application UX’s to finesse. I’m glad I didn’t have to make a Ribbon

* RobiNZ Blogging Tip: Have a little test blog for this sort of thing. I have one with enough content to get a feel for layout/UI changes but doesn’t require a 1200+ page re-publish every time you change something!

Comments

[Mike Perry]

Hi Robin

[snip]
Link behaviour isn't one of these but colours & stuff are set by the blog theme. I'll continue to "play"
[/snip]

Just out of interest are you using Advanced Templates in TyepPad?

If no, I would highly recommend you look into using them...

Take care, Mike

[Robin Capper]

Thanks Guys, Take Owens point but TypePad requires me to choose some stuff. Link behaviour isn't one of these but colours & stuff are set by the blog theme. I'll continue to "play"

Hi Owen

[snip]
Robin, these questions were answered long ago with the invention of HTML: let the *client* decide how they want your links to look and work. Nothing is more irritating or frustrating to me than reading a web site that ignores my settings and insists that it knows best.
[/snip]

You make a very! valid point (and should definitely be considered), but it totally ignores the aesthetics of a beautifully crafted web site (the work of a web designer).

Take care, Mike

[OwenWengerd]

Robin, these questions were answered long ago with the invention of HTML: let the *client* decide how they want your links to look and work. Nothing is more irritating or frustrating to me than reading a web site that ignores my settings and insists that it knows best.

[Mike Perry]

Hi Robin

* Should a link you haven't visited be light or dark?

I would go with a colour somewhere in the middle, not too light, not too dark.

I think Bold links work well on pages that do not have too many links. If a page contains a lot of links, having them Bold can overpower the page.

* When you've visited should it change state and/or colour.

If unvisited links are Bold then they should change state once clicked on (visited).

Visited links should definitely change colour.

* Should it be underlined? That's the old standard but does it matter these days?

Underlined links are very! good from an accessibility standpoint.

* The other debate is “Open in new tab/window” vs the same tab. I have generally have links opening in the same window as it gives the user the option to Right Click > New if they choose. Is this what you’d expect/prefer?

Personally I would let the web browsers options (settings) make that decision.

Take care, Mike