On Usable Links

19. Oct 2004.

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Large headers force us to scroll down a bit to the main content. “Skip to content” is quite useful, but why not skipping the “skip to content” also and save one more click? I’ve recently finished my pets’ web site and once again (i set this at hr-netiquette.org before) set my inner site links to point to the speciffic part of the web page–the navigation division.

If you follow links to the web sites mentioned above, you’ll notice that when you click a link to another page within the same web site, the page does not appear from the top of the document. Instead, you see everything below the header–navigation bar and the main content.

This is easily done if your markup is well structured. I practice assigning an IDs to different important elements of the document and instead of pointing my links to example.html, with IDs placed, i point them to example.html#navbar. And that’s all.

Marko Dugonjić is a designer specialized in user experience design, web typography and web standards. He runs a nanoscale user interface studio Creative Nights and organizes FFWD.PRO, a micro-conference and workshops for web professionals.

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ptr
001—2004.10.19.10:10

Not a bad idea, however, I think it could be distracting. For instance, on your pet’s page, seeing only the legs of the dog on the top left grabs my attention every time, instead of focusing on the articles straight. I would rather make the links to point to #content or to nothing at all inside the page if a figurative image would be cut in half.

Will Phillips
002—2004.10.19.17:33

Ok, so this isn’t really related to linking patterns at all. I just wanted to let you know that your section on Bull Terriers has inspired me to include a section on Boxers and my dog Ajax on the upcoming redesign of my site.

Cody Lindley
003—2004.10.19.18:07

If it has not been said, nice job on the design of your new site. I think you have made colors that are often difficult to pull off very desirable. It reminds me a little bit of this site:

Lousco Labradors

As for the topic at hand, I like the idea but not sure if I would make that sort of decision for the user.

marko
004—2004.10.19.20:01

Thanks for the compliments!

The similarity with Louscos is obvious. I already had everything done before Louscos’ launched, and there was no time to start all over. Bad luck :(

Regarding the technique, it’s just an idea, which has to be applied with caution. These websites are demonstrating it, so you can see pros and cons, before using it.

Dave Child
005—2004.10.20.17:56

I love the idea, in principle, especially on sites large with large headers or navbars. However, I think it could create problems. Users expect to see certain things in certain places, and they are unlikely to notice the scrollbar on the right telling them there is more above what to them is the top of the page…

Perhaps an “onLoad” event taking them to the content would be better. They’d see the top of the page then, before moving, and it wouldn’t rely on anchors in links…

Goran Anièiæ
006—2004.10.21.16:39

Isto sam primenio na sopstvenom sajtu, kao veoma korisno, kod upuæivanja posetilaca na sekcije pisanja i èitanje komentara. Ovim sam uveæao usability preusmeravajuæi èitaoce priloga direktno na sekciju od njihovog interesa, li¹avajuæi i h nepotrebnog scrollovanja.

On Usable Links

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