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Why Your Links Should Never Say “Click Here”

uxmovement.com

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Re: Why Your Links Should Never Say “Click Here”

#4
I've tried to abide by this rule for most of the 17 years I've done web development. There is, however, an exception to this rule: My mom.

My mom (and my dad) belong to the group that - even after a decade of daily computer use - frequently fail to recognize distinct interface elements. They seem to have no general concept of the look / purpose of a link, a window, a modal box etc. Colors and chrome are meaningless to them, but text that says 'click here' is the best of UX there can be.

I've noticed that many web publications that cater to non-savvy users tend to stick with the 'click here'-pattern.

Re: Why Your Links Should Never Say “Click Here”

#9
post #5

Good post, but it would be more convincing with data. At this point, it seems like the blog post is based on your intuition. None of us have great intuition as to what 90% of web users are doing.

I agree, there are a lot of things here that come off as just opinion or speculation but doesn't give any reasons for why that hold up to firm scrutiny. An example:

* Doing so diminishes their experience of your interface because it momentarily takes their focus away from it. Instead of focusing on the interface and its content, “click here” diverts their attention to the user and their mouse. Not to mention, you can also make them feel dumb by suggesting that they don’t know what a link is or how to use a mouse.*

Based on what? At this point in time, very few people think about the actual action of moving a mouse and clicking a link, they just do it. It is now an innate action

however

you have to keep your audience in mind here. That second paragraph about making your audience seem dumb? Well what about the group of people who almost never use a computer, the elderly or those who are just not around machines as often? They might read a linked word and think it's something completely different. Telling them to click here engages in the mind "There is more relevant information on the next page".

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