The editor at Scientific American clearly didn’t get the memo that links need to make sense out of context.

“Click here” links cause problems for people using screen readers. Screen readers allow users to navigate the page quickly by only reading out the links. When the screen readers says, “Here”, “Here”, “Here”, and “Here” you’ve no idea where the links will take you.

Though less serious, it’s also a readability issue for sighted readers. You have to go back and scan the text to check where this link will take you.

Presumably this sign is for people who can’t see but can still read.

I’m running some remote usability tests this week where I ask participants to share their desktop with me. I’m viewing the tests on a 30″ Apple Cinema Display and it’s easy to forget the lower-spec hardware that many users still struggle with day-to-day. Here’s a screenshot from one participant: you’ll notice:

• Users install lots of crap in their browser (either deliberately or inadvertantly).
• The browser chrome and toolbars take up over a third of the display.
• When viewing the results of a Google search, just one natural search result appears above the fold.

I’m not saying that this configuration is typcial, but it’s certainly not unusual to find this when you look at the way “real” users use the web, rather than the digerati.

It won’t have escaped your attention that everything needs to be social these days. I imagine design teams huddled in dingy rooms, having been told by senior management that they can’t emerge until they’ve made their app or web site ‘more social’.