borders on images

[Karen G. Schneider]

>> Interesting point. In this case, the words following the icon are part of
>> the same link so the consequence of the icon not being identified as a link
>> are inconsequential. The icon is there for visual reasons like aesthetics
>> and identification, rather than as a link.
>
>Then <IMG SRC=myImage.gif> , no link, unless you want some users to
>_stumble_ into a link and think they are playing a video game. This is ok
>as long as it is what you want to do because it meets a need.

The point should be made for those of us in or from public-service
settings: with novice users, the opposite is often true--that people expect
icons to function as buttons and will click on them whether or not they are
linked.  That's my peeve with all those graphic "dots" used to bullet and
add color to pages--novice users will click on a button and then get
confused when it does not respond.  Sort of like what happened with the CHI
89 Kiosk (Salomon, 89)--walk-up users clicked on bulleted text, apparently
because they thought these buttons were affordances mapped to a function
suggested by the corresponding text.  These folks were not *software*
naive, but they were new to this particular interface.   This would suggest
that everything on a page has a purpose--either the purpose you assign and
successfully articulate, or the purpose the user, seeking meaning and
structure, reads into it.

------------------------------------------------------------------
Karen G. Schneider * kschneid at umich.edu *http://www.sils.umich.edu/~kschneid
Cybrarian * PhD Student, UM SILS * Columnist, American Libraries
Forthcoming: The Internet Access Cookbook (Neal Schuman, order fax
800-584-2414 or e-mail Neal-Schuman at icm.com). ISBN 1-55570-235-X.  *
Opinions mine alone.