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“Learn More” links are a problem

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Re: “Learn More” links are a problem

#3
I remember being taught never to use "Click here" (which has the same issues) about 15 years ago. It staggers me that in this day and age of responsive design and tableless layouts, we've still got the same old problems...

Re: “Learn More” links are a problem

#4
On a related note, what people's take on using "read more" style links on blogs (especially ones publishing longer form content)? Meaning, the main list of articles on a blog shows the first few paragraphs of the posts, and then have a "read more, or "continue reading" link for the full article.

Does this make the blog's information more manageable, or is it also crappy design?

Re: “Learn More” links are a problem

#5
I wonder whether the trend began as the amount of low quality click-bait on the web increased. 'Learn More' maintains a purposeful ambiguity - if users have read the summary, they're likely to have a fairly good idea of what they are reading about and whether they want to know more about it.

If there is not much more content to actually be seen in the article, it works in favour of those producing quick and easy content to hit metrics as they won't be over promising.

Re: “Learn More” links are a problem

#6
post #3

I remember being taught never to use "Click here" (which has the same issues) about 15 years ago. It staggers me that in this day and age of responsive design and tableless layouts, we've still got the same old problems...

Wasn't Click Here proven to be effective in testing? I swear I read that at some point.

I always go with something like _Download the annual report (380KB PDF)_ rather than the client-suggested _Click here_ to download the annual report. But I think a combination was proven to be effective.

Re: “Learn More” links are a problem

#7
post #4

On a related note, what people's take on using "read more" style links on blogs (especially ones publishing longer form content)? Meaning, the main list of articles on a blog shows the first few paragraphs of the posts, and then have a "read more, or "continue reading" link for the full article. Does this make the blog's information more manageable, or is it also crappy design?

Trade-off, evidently. Better to get an overview of what the blog is about, worse to read the actual entries.

I personally dislike it very strongly. Reminds me of feeds without the full article, and means to generate clicks.

Re: “Learn More” links are a problem

#8
post #7
post #4

On a related note, what people's take on using "read more" style links on blogs (especially ones publishing longer form content)? Meaning, the main list of articles on a blog shows the first few paragraphs of the posts, and then have a "read more, or "continue reading" link for the full article. Does this make the blog's information more manageable, or is it also crappy design?

Trade-off, evidently. Better to get an overview of what the blog is about, worse to read the actual entries. I personally dislike it very strongly. Reminds me of feeds without the full article, and means to generate clicks.

I was similarly opposed to those but then I found myself writing quite long posts and enabled "Read more" links for the sake of making the front page useful. Google searches return links to full articles anyway.

Re: “Learn More” links are a problem

#9
post #6
post #3

I remember being taught never to use "Click here" (which has the same issues) about 15 years ago. It staggers me that in this day and age of responsive design and tableless layouts, we've still got the same old problems...

Wasn't Click Here proven to be effective in testing? I swear I read that at some point. I always go with something like _Download the annual report (380KB PDF)_ rather than the client-suggested _Click here_ to download the annual report . But I think a combination was proven to be effective.

I remember reading that putting "click here" in banner adverts produced better click-through rates, as sad as it may sound. I can well believe that the same is true of links, though it ruins the page for screen readers (I went on some training for this once, which advocated link text exactly like your former example, and was told that its common practise for experienced people with visual disabilities to simply listen through the list of links to more quickly navigate to the information they need).

Re: “Learn More” links are a problem

#10
post #9
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't Click Here proven to be effective in testing? I swear I read that at some point. I always go with something like _Download the annual report (380KB PDF)_ rather than the client-suggested _Click here_ to download the annual report . But I think a combination was proven to be effective.

I remember reading that putting "click here" in banner adverts produced better click-through rates, as sad as it may sound. I can well believe that the same is true of links, though it ruins the page for screen readers (I went on some training for this once, which advocated link text exactly like your former example, and was told that its common practise for experienced people with visual disabilities to simply liste…

I guess an element of that would be down to the fact that a banner and (or image, in general) doesn't necessarily look clickable without "click here". Text links should always be able to avoid that problem, though.
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