5 ms·

“Learn More” links are a problem

39 points by prawn 11y ago

dstyrb 11y ago
http://www.geekation.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Geekation_WouldYouLikeToKnowMore.jpg http://www.geekation.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Geekatio...
sp8 11y ago
I remember being taught never to use "Click here" (which has the same issues) about 15 years ago. It staggers me that in this day and age of responsive design and tableless layouts, we've still got the same old problems...
- prawn 11y ago
  Wasn't Click Here proven to be effective in testing? I swear I read that at some point. I always go with something like _Download the annual report (380KB PDF)_ rather than the client-suggested _Click here_ to download the annual report. But I think a combination was proven to be effective.
  - sp8 11y ago
    I remember reading that putting "click here" in banner adverts produced better click-through rates, as sad as it may sound. I can well believe that the same is true of links, though it ruins the page for screen readers (I went on some training for this once, which advocated link text exactly like your former example, and was told that its common practise for experienced people with visual disabilities to simply listen through the list of links to more quickly navigate to the information they need).
    - oneeyedpigeon 11y ago
      I guess an element of that would be down to the fact that a banner and (or image, in general) doesn't necessarily look clickable without "click here". Text links should always be able to avoid that problem, though.
    - pavel_lishin 11y ago
      Why is that sad? It's a very clear call to action, and is very unambiguous. (I realize that it's probably less so when you start talking about accessibility, but I don't know much about that. :/)
imrehg 11y ago
On a related note, what people's take on using "read more" style links on blogs (especially ones publishing longer form content)? Meaning, the main list of articles on a blog shows the first few paragraphs of the posts, and then have a "read more, or "continue reading" link for the full article. Does this make the blog's information more manageable, or is it also crappy design?
- onli 11y ago
  Trade-off, evidently. Better to get an overview of what the blog is about, worse to read the actual entries. I personally dislike it very strongly. Reminds me of feeds without the full article, and means to generate clicks.
  - TeMPOraL 11y ago
    I was similarly opposed to those but then I found myself writing quite long posts and enabled "Read more" links for the sake of making the front page useful. Google searches return links to full articles anyway.
- oneeyedpigeon 11y ago
  Why not just say something like "Read more about [link usability]" so you have the best of both worlds?
  - jerf 11y ago
    Because it's auto-generated by the blog software usually, at the cut point. Yes, you could make it an option, but then only the most careful %X would use it anyhow.
- jerf 11y ago
  Well, speaking as someone who has pretty much gone full-on "nothing but 10 page+ essays" on my blog after starting with the snippet style when I first started, inlining all the content is impractical on the front page.
- 11y ago
gloves 11y ago
I wonder whether the trend began as the amount of low quality click-bait on the web increased. 'Learn More' maintains a purposeful ambiguity - if users have read the summary, they're likely to have a fairly good idea of what they are reading about and whether they want to know more about it. If there is not much more content to actually be seen in the article, it works in favour of those producing quick and easy content to hit metrics as they won't be over promising.
qntty 11y ago
Glad this wasn't called "'Learn More' Considered Harmful"
hammock 11y ago
I like the conclusions the author draws, but the proposed solution falls short of being a better alternative. The example replacements don't feel like links to me, nor do they offer much more information that what I would have expected from "learn more" coupled with the context of the headline. If the destination page doesn't jive with the previous context, then that's a problem with the two pieces of content and the very notion of linking them, not the link text itself. It's probably also worth mentioning 3D Touch and how it can help the problem.

39 points by prawn 11y ago

http://www.geekation.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Geekation_WouldYouLikeToKnowMore.jpg http://www.geekation.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Geekatio...

sp8 11y ago

I remember being taught never to use "Click here" (which has the same issues) about 15 years ago. It staggers me that in this day and age of responsive design and tableless layouts, we've still got the same old problems...

prawn 11y ago
Wasn't Click Here proven to be effective in testing? I swear I read that at some point. I always go with something like _Download the annual report (380KB PDF)_ rather than the client-suggested _Click here_ to download the annual report. But I think a combination was proven to be effective.
- sp8 11y ago
  I remember reading that putting "click here" in banner adverts produced better click-through rates, as sad as it may sound. I can well believe that the same is true of links, though it ruins the page for screen readers (I went on some training for this once, which advocated link text exactly like your former example, and was told that its common practise for experienced people with visual disabilities to simply listen through the list of links to more quickly navigate to the information they need).
  - oneeyedpigeon 11y ago
    I guess an element of that would be down to the fact that a banner and (or image, in general) doesn't necessarily look clickable without "click here". Text links should always be able to avoid that problem, though.
  - pavel_lishin 11y ago
    Why is that sad? It's a very clear call to action, and is very unambiguous. (I realize that it's probably less so when you start talking about accessibility, but I don't know much about that. :/)

imrehg 11y ago

On a related note, what people's take on using "read more" style links on blogs (especially ones publishing longer form content)? Meaning, the main list of articles on a blog shows the first few paragraphs of the posts, and then have a "read more, or "continue reading" link for the full article. Does this make the blog's information more manageable, or is it also crappy design?

onli 11y ago
Trade-off, evidently. Better to get an overview of what the blog is about, worse to read the actual entries. I personally dislike it very strongly. Reminds me of feeds without the full article, and means to generate clicks.
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  I was similarly opposed to those but then I found myself writing quite long posts and enabled "Read more" links for the sake of making the front page useful. Google searches return links to full articles anyway.
oneeyedpigeon 11y ago
Why not just say something like "Read more about [link usability]" so you have the best of both worlds?
- jerf 11y ago
  Because it's auto-generated by the blog software usually, at the cut point. Yes, you could make it an option, but then only the most careful %X would use it anyhow.
jerf 11y ago
Well, speaking as someone who has pretty much gone full-on "nothing but 10 page+ essays" on my blog after starting with the snippet style when I first started, inlining all the content is impractical on the front page.
11y ago

gloves 11y ago

I wonder whether the trend began as the amount of low quality click-bait on the web increased. 'Learn More' maintains a purposeful ambiguity - if users have read the summary, they're likely to have a fairly good idea of what they are reading about and whether they want to know more about it. If there is not much more content to actually be seen in the article, it works in favour of those producing quick and easy content to hit metrics as they won't be over promising.

qntty 11y ago

Glad this wasn't called "'Learn More' Considered Harmful"

hammock 11y ago

I like the conclusions the author draws, but the proposed solution falls short of being a better alternative. The example replacements don't feel like links to me, nor do they offer much more information that what I would have expected from "learn more" coupled with the context of the headline. If the destination page doesn't jive with the previous context, then that's a problem with the two pieces of content and the very notion of linking them, not the link text itself. It's probably also worth mentioning 3D Touch and how it can help the problem.