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46 Genie Application Style Guide February 2001
■ Define a Skip link to go to next related item.
When displaying a series of related data, such as news stories or email messages, use
a Skip link to allow the user to skip the current item and retrieve the next one. Do not
use Next. Usability tests show that users tend to think it means “go to the next page”
and not “go to the next item.”
■ Define labels for links.
Create an appropriate label that reflects the action of the link. When the user selects
the link, the label should change accordingly, for example, from View to Skip. Limit
labels to five characters.
■ Use links sparingly.
It is popular to put links at the end of display cards for alternative navigation, but do
not define more than two or three links per card. User tests show that links at the end
of the card often make it difficult for users to navigate out of the card. The reason is
that labels corresponding to the link replace the labels for the primary action. This
forces the user to scroll back up to access the primary action. The last link should
match the default action for the card so that the user does not have to scroll up again.
■ Keep the text of links short.
This avoids links that wrap beyond one line.
■ Place navigation links only at the top and bottom of the card.
Do not embed navigation links in displayed text (unless it is context sensitive),
because users will not understand that the links are not related to the data. Limit the
length of navigation links to one line each, 13 characters if possible (the brackets will
use 2 of the 15 characters).
Example 8-2
Openwave Browser
INTC
Last: 81 1/4
Chg: -1
Vol:
Done OK
1,361,800
[News]