Your users rely on link text to navigate through your site. These small and unassuming bits of UX copy contribute substantially to the findability, discoverability, and accessibility of your content.
The links that best fulfill those roles are:
Specific
Sincere
Substantial
Succinct
Specific
A link’s primary purpose is to communicate to users what they’ll find on the other side of a click. Vague or repetitive language fails that purpose.
One of the most common link failures is the generic and unhelpful Learn more.
Not Specific: Mailchimp used vague Learn more links throughout its site.
I’m generally impressed with Mailchimp’s copy. (I even use it as an example of good writing in the...
By 2015, Americans will be less than 15% of Internet users and will likely account for about one-third its value (Americans typically spend more than other users). The fact that two-thirds of Internet revenues will come from other countries highlights the growing importance of international
No one likes to be surprised by some rigid rule that prevents them from getting what they need (or forces them to accept something they don’t want). Explain the policy, but meet customer needs within reason. Mashed potatoes instead of fries? Hold the special sauce? Not a problem. Don’t be that
Even if you don’t have a lively and engaged community on your ecommerce site, you may be able to create a link between existing communities and your business. Leverage existing social channels and such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Pinterest and encourage website visitors to explore key
A 60-Second Trailer of the 60-Day Report on Cybersecurity
Melissa Hathaway came across our radar recently when President Obama tasked the former Bush administration aide with leading a 60-day review of Bush’s Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative; a largely classified, purported $30 billion, multi phase plan to address cybersecurity issues
Emerging Technologies are Banding Together to Accelerate Big Data’s Growth
Thanks to the growth of the internet, the rate at which new information is being released is growing exponentially. Accelerating big data between machines. We are in an age when communication is not just between human beings. Machines are now the go-to for connections between the people to people
JS-Kit Score: Turn Your Site into a Localized Digg
Widget provider JS-Kit has released their latest widget this morning, Score. Score adds a thumbs up/thumbs down-style ratings widget to any page content, and then aggregates the data across the entire web site into an info box that can highlight a site’s top content. It can also integrate
Teenager’s UX: Designing for Teens
Teenagers use the internet on many devices in various environments. For our research, we focused on web and app usability for laptops, tablets, and mobile devices. Although teens spend endless time texting and on social media, we didn’t focus on these activities because our goal was to derive
better link labels: 4ss for encouraging clicks
Beyond Usability: 3 User Experiences Reshaping Their Industries
Pre Uber we were all plagued with standing on the corner, possibly in the rain, belongings in hand while attempting to wave down one of the few free taxis. (The worse the rain, the fewer the taxis — that’s a law of nature.) An abundance of unknowns adding further anxiety: how much is it going
Why Personas Fail
In order for stakeholders to use personas, they have to believe in them, feel invested, and have ownership over them. The most successful personas are created with involvement from their end users. Otherwise, people will have no understanding of the data behind them and the rigor that went into
Better Link Labels: 4Ss for Encouraging Clicks
Notice that this quality of good links is last in the list. Concision is important, but it must be balanced with the other priorities (specific, sincere, substantial) in link-label writing. There is no maximum word count for links. They can be as long as they need to be to achieve those other three
Mobile: Native Apps, Web Apps, and Hybrid Apps
It’s arguably cheaper to develop hybrid and web apps, as these require skills that build up on previous experience with the web. NN/g clients often find that going fully native is a lot more expensive, as it requires more specialized talent. But, on the other hand, HTML5 is fairly new, and good
6 Tips for Successful Personalization
As personalization has become increasingly possible on intranets throughout the years, we’ve seen an increase in the number of sites that provide an “out” to personalization, often for troubleshooting purposes. One concern with personalization is that it results in an experience that differs
WP Engine Supports the Domain Connect Project .
Domain Name Servers (DNS) are the equivalent of The Yellow Pages for the Internet. They store and maintain a directory of domain names and translate them to Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. Humans access information online via domain names like wpengine.com and web browsers communicate via IP
better link labels: 4ss for encouraging clicks
A Look Back at the 2018 WP Engine Summit
In our third round of keynotes on Thursday, we heard from tech leaders about breaking edge technologies and the ethics that accompany them. Barb Palsner, Global Product Partnership at Google, talked about the importance of a mobile-first approach and technologies like AMP and PWA that can work
10 Must-Have Features for a WordPress Website in 2018 .
I’m always surprised with how many websites I see come across WP Care Market that aren’t utilizing Google Analytics. I never blame the website owner as the website owner seems to also discover they don’t have GA when we run our website reviews! Don’t let that happen to you and secure
A Model for Conducting UX Workshops and Exercises
User experience, especially today, is not a siloed practice. To collect knowledge, generate new ideas, and ideate on design solutions, it’s best to bring people together. This job often falls on UX and occurs in the form of workshops for ideation, prioritization of ideas, affinity diagramming, or
UX Mapping Methods Compared: A Cheat Sheet
Think of service blueprints as a part two to customer journey maps. Similar to customer journey maps, blueprints are instrumental in complex scenarios spanning many service-related offerings. Blueprinting is an ideal approach to experiences that are omnichannel, involve multiple touchpoints, or
Service Blueprints: Definition
In our appliance-company example, numerous backstage actions occur: A warehouse employee inputs and updates inventory numbers into the point-of-sale software; a shipping employee checks the unit’s condition and quality; a chat assistant contacts the factory to confirm lead times; employees
Understanding Today’s IT Hierarchy
This position involves planning and managing all IT projects across the department and those that relate to other functions and departments. They oversee the budget and track resources to stay on target with the IT strategy. The role requires a bachelor’s degree or higher in IT or computer
8 predictions for the future of IoT in 2017
Similarly, insurance companies will start to invest more in a move to adapt to the IoT. The IoT is going to generate data that will fundamentally redefine the way they can calculate and mitigate risk. This year will be critical for them as they work to embrace the IoT with early consumer
What Frequent Fliers Need to Know About Airport Facial Recognition
Stay ahead of facial recognition issues by bringing at least two forms of photo identification with you every time you visit the airport. If the system flags you as a false positive, you want to have all the information you need to verify your identity at a moment’s notice. Hopefully, technology
Why Blockchain and Remanufacturing are a Perfect Match
Production in the remanufacturing industry can be difficult as the quality, quantity, and availability of used products can be random and unpredictable. Unlike new items, remanufactured ones depend on the availability of already used parts. There is no way of knowing when these parts will be
better link labels: 4ss for encouraging clicks
8 Major Legal Risks Faced By Startups
One of the most important decisions that new business owners have to make is regarding an appropriate legal type for their new venture. The legal type of business chosen has an impact on the funding options for the company, its tax responsibilities, and the personal liability of the owners. The
How Technology and Training Fueled One Ad-Based Company’s Growth
Gain it he did: “Because we believe in teaching from example, I was running ad campaigns and analytics for the Golden State Warriors, MGM, Ashley Furniture, Social Media Examiner, and other big companies — then documenting the process step by step,” Young explains. “I remember one
Better Link Labels: 4Ss for Encouraging Clicks | Horizontal Attention Leans Left
Horizontal Attention Leans Left
None of the users we observed used horizontal scrolling (that is, there were no fixations to the right of the screen edge), but many of the rightmost fixations can be attributed to searching for the (vertical) scrollbar.The absence of fixations on content to the right of the screen’s edge is in
Password Creation: 3 Ways To Make It Easier
Allow users to unmask the password. Seeing the password will support memory and will allow users to check their work. On desktop, hide the password by default, and next to it, place a checkbox labeled Show password. On mobile devices and tablets, show the password by default and let users toggle
UX Guidelines for Ecommerce Homepages, Category Pages, and Product Listing Pages
This latest round of research found that, compared to the past, fewer sites provide traditional category pages as interim pages before presenting individual products. In an effort to reduce the number of pages that users must click through, many sites now have replaced or augmented category-landing
