Not that many years ago, usability expert Jacob Nielsen recommended that links should be blue. No negotiation, just make that link blue. In 2006 Nielsen recently decided to pull back that guide line as “today’s users have seen links in many other colors”.
It doesn’t matter if a download link (or any other link) is blue, green or orange. It does however matter that the link, whether it’s text or an image, stands clearly out from other page elements.
It’s incredible how often you see sites offering downloads in one form or another, yet the download links seem to be invisible to the naked eye. It’s not that the the download link you’re looking for isn’t there, it’s just that someone didn’t realize how important it is to put it on top of the visual hierarchy.
Even though users have gotten used to scrolling, putting important items such as a download link beneath the fold, can’t be categorized as anything else than stupid. It’s like putting the eject button on your DVD-player on it’s backside. Sure enough, most people will find out where it is eventually, but why make it harder than absolutely necessary?
Download Design
May 4th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
I still can’t believe how many sites have their links looking like the rest of the text on their page.
I was recently on an e-commerce site, and couldn’t even find the link to add an item to my shopping cart. I quickly got frustrated and left to go buy the product from another site. Who wants to send users to their competitors?