Meryl's Notes Blog

Over the weekend, I browsed a Web site that had a multi-parter article. I clicked on the Next button and nothing happened. First, I thought it was my sick mouse (it isn’t clicking well), but I looked closer and saw the cursor didn’t change from the arrow to the pointer. So I clicked on the “Go to next page” link and it worked. I naturally went for the button because it’s bigger and more noticeable.

I expected both items to be linked, not just one. It’s simple things like this that reduces a site’s “goodwill” as Steve Krug explains in Don’t Make Me Think. This little action makes the user mildly annoyed. The site has not lost the user yet… but it could if there’s another similar problem. Or it might be able to regain its goodwill by providing me with what I want or making it easy for me to do something. Watch out for those links… it’s one of those things can be easily avoided. [ Originally posted on InformIT ]