Christian Montoya wrote:
Not to offend any listers, but my experience with the 40-55 age group
is "old habits die hard." This problem isn't just in computing
either. It would be an exercise in futility to try and get those
users to understand labelled links, or tabbed browsing, or any other
thing they aren't used to. Looks to me like this is a good time to
compromise.
Being near the upper end of that age group, and having spent at least
parts of the last 12 years on the web, I know your observations are
at more or less correct. I'm generally against compromises though, as
there will be no need to improve anything at the receiving end if web
developers keep on pampering "old fools" like me :-)
It may take me a little longer to catch up when things change, but I
rather see any good changes take place than being stuck with the old
stuff forever. No progress in that.
Of course, it is a bit different if changes are made only for the sake
of making changes, but that's not what this thread is all about.
When it comes to relying on 'meaningful link-text' all by itself,
instead of adding 'click here' to them, then I think the adding of
'click here' or similar "help to old fools like me" should be reserved
for extremely rare cases where it /may/ actually make sense. I can't
think of such a case at the moment...
Proper _styling of links_ is much more helpful for everyone, so if we
can at least limit the trend of making links blend in completely with
ordinary text, then I think the catch-up process for the somewhat older
and more inflexible amongst us will go a little smoother. Most of us are
not grown into our old habits /that/ hard ;-)
regards
Georg
--
http://www.gunlaug.no
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