Comments on: Help a User Out – Underline Links

By: Trending Upward | On Link Styles - Are We Regressing?

Trending Upward | On Link Styles - Are We Regressing? — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:06:32 +0000

[...] by Shelby Thayer at 12:02 am under analytics, usability This will be a short post, as I’ve written about link styles before, specifically about how using underlined links in body text is still a best practice. If [...]

By: .eduGuru Links of the Week for November 14th, 2008 | .eduGuru

.eduGuru Links of the Week for November 14th, 2008 | .eduGuru — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:37:40 +0000

[...] Underline Links, People – A quick reminder to make sure your links on your website are still underlined. [...]

By: Shelby Thayer

Shelby Thayer — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 23:15:25 +0000

Thanks so much for your comments everyone.

@Kyle and @Karlyn – I think sometimes it’s important to get back to basics. We can drive millions of users to our websites, but it doesn’t matter if our websites are not easy to navigate and use.

@Robin – While the hot pink links on Matt’s site are very *contrasty* (I love that word), I do think the bold style of the blue font with the dark background is confusing. Are those links? I’m not sure until I hover over them. I understand that Matt is going pink for October, though, so that’s cool with me. Very cool, actually. We need more men like him in the cause.

@Dmitry – Totally agreed, although I’m not sure it’s good to have the link color be the exact color as the body text – especially for users who are not web savvy.

As a side note, the reason I think underlines are so important is that sometimes we use different colors for bold, headings, or other emphasis. If we don’t use underlines, it’s *essential* that we do not use different color font for any other reason unless it’s *obviously* main or sub navigation.

By: Dmitry

Dmitry — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:02:49 +0000

Hi Shelby,

Thanks for mentioning my article I like underlines and usually prefer to use them — not quite sure what I was thinking with my theme design where I left them out, though I’m working on a new design where I’ll make sure to underline links. The great thing about underlines is that you don’t need any drastic color differentiation as you’ve mentioned, they’re very easy to spot and everyone know what they do.

By: Robin

Robin — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:55:30 +0000

You know, earlier today I was perusing Matthew Oliphant's site redesign (well, perhaps I should say site shift, since he went from usabilityworks.org to xhipi.com), and it is *highly* usable. While he doesn't underline links, in much the same way, Matto does make links very obvious by contrast. Posts are white text on gray background, while links are hot pink—with visited links being a not-as-vibrant pink. Easy to see, easy to use, and it is very clear and user friendly (sample post here. I find it interesting that, for some reason, this has become a theme for me today. Still worthwhile to come back and review the basics. For as much time as I spend on the web, it still pains me to have to mouse over text before I can figure out where the embedded links are. And I'm glad I wasn't just imagining that your links used to be darker green. Viva la difference!

By: Karlyn

Karlyn — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:39:28 +0000

Had never thought of the colorblind issue with red or green links…a very valid point! I agree with you that if you’re not going to underline, there has to be some sort of contrast to set them apart, even if it seems obvious to *us* that the user should know its a link.

By: Kyle James

Kyle James — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:36:41 +0000

Nice little simple reminder. Point well taken and something everyone should just double check.