[WEB4LIB] curious web design

[John C Harvey]

Andrew Mutch wrote:

> I was accessing ALA's resource page on Internet filters and noticed that they have
> a curious way of linking to the documents.  Instead of linking through the text,
> the link is through the "ball" graphic to the left of the document name which
> serves as a bullet.  Am I the only one who finds this a bit odd?  I don't think
> I've ever seen a link done this way.
>
> See:
>
> http://www.ala.org/alaorg/oif/filtersandfiltering.html

I've seen something similar on a few other sites, and it's always struck me as
terribly anti-intuitive. The casual user may not move his or her mouse pointer across
the link graphic, which is the only thing that identifies it as a hyperlink.

To me, this rates inclusion in Jakob Nielsen's next "Top Ten Mistakes of Web Design"
column. A link should look like a link.

----(Imagine a fancy inline graphic here.)----

John C Harvey
jharvey at irving.lib.tx.us

"There must be more to life than having everything."
--Maurice Sendak

The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect official policies
of the Irving Public Library or the City of Irving.

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