Blue is the real Black... When you're designing your site, you should leave your text links in their natural state--blue and underlined. We want to alter our links to any color in the book --anything but blue. And we have the urge to take off those underlines.
Resist the temptation. It is a killer to leave them alone, but here is why.
From the earliest days of the web, text links have been blue. People intuitively recognize that blue, underlined text is a link. They know they can click on it. Notice that Blogspot's colors are not blue? You had to think twice.
The combination of blue and underlines means If I click on this, it goes somewhere. We're Pavlov's dogs - we see the link and instantly know what it means. There's no time wasted in trying to figure out whether or not that particular word or phrase is clickable.
If you mess with the natural appearance of a link, you lose that instant recognition. People have to stop and think to figure out what your colors mean. Have you come across a blue, underlined word that WASN'T a link? Drove you nuts clicking on it.
So... Visitors shouldn't have to think about what is a link and what isn't. Whatever you can do that maintains instant recognition is perfect for you. Make it Pay!
Peace and Safe Passage, Always.
Friday, April 15, 2011
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