Marketing & SEO Discussion List - LED Digest

> Item 2 on [Jakob Nielsen's] list was "Non-Standard Links"

> where it states "Violating common expectations for how links

> work is a sure way to confuse and delay users, and might

> prevent them from being able to use your site."

        - Tom Aman, LED 2219

This doesn't seem to bother Microsoft. Just have a look at MSN's home page.

Mr Nielsen obviously knows a lot about usability, but it seems to me his concept is taking it to the extreme, at the expense of any sort of design integrity. Would you really want your commercial website to look like this: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/designmistakes.html?

View that page on a high res monitor in an expanded window, where the text spreads right across the screen with no graphics to break it up. I don't find it easy to read at all.

Imagine if MSN was designed, or perhaps I should say non-designed, in the Neilsen manner. What sort of image would that impart to the visitor? Imagine if every website you visited followed the Nielsen formula. Usable maybe, but dull as dishwater. The Web is a vibrant, colorful environment. Surely we can make sites usable without sacrificing some degree of design flair.

I think common expectations on how links work have changed in the last decade. Even people who are taught that all links are blue and underlined soon realize that this isn't actually the case. As long as your links are consistent the great majority of users will navigate your site just fine.