Every website we review seems to have the inevitable Achilles’ heel. And on most sites, no matter how successful their website design is otherwise, it tends to be their inconsistent use of blue hypertext links.
TechRepublic.com is an example of this. This is a bit of a disappointment for a site that does so many other things with precision and excellence.
As we noted in our TechRepublic.com Website Design Review, most of the hypertext links are blue, but not all are underscored. That inconsistency is annoying and can be confusing.
And some, but not all hypertext links turn purple after they have been clicked. Also annoying and unnecessarily confusing.
TechRepublic should be an example of good affordance; unfortunately, it is not.
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Other well-known and otherwise successful sites can often be just as inconsistent and confusing in their use of hypertext links.
As we noted in our BusinessWeek.com Website Design Review, some links are underscored to distinguish them from inactive text and some are not. Sure, they appear underscored when moused over, but that’s not the recommended design convention.
The consistent use of the blue underscored hypertext links will improve any website, and would earn most sites a solid “A” in the often-tricky Affordance category.
