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Moodle User Interface Guidelines > Link

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This is a guideline for a Moodle Interface Guideline. Comments: developer forum thread

Problem

The user needs to be provided the choice to issue a command or to navigate in the user interface.

Forces: factors that affect selection

• Links take up less screen real estate than buttons
• Links are meant primarily for navigation and users may not expect clicking them to have consequences
  • If used for commands, this can be alleviated by having the link label clearly state what it does as command verbs: "Undo"

Solution

Best practice is to label navigational links the same to their target page's main heading (or title). This way, the user experience has continuity: users get what they expect.

For command links, use an action verb. When using command links, the command is mediated to the server in form of a GET parameter. To keep all Moodle URLs bookmarkable, redirect (using HTTP headers) any page, the url of which contains GET parameters that result in user data being changed, to a new URL that does not contain the GET parameter.

Related guidelines

• Button

Further information / Sources

• Visualizing Links: 7 Design Guidelines (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)
• Command Links (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)
• Avoid Within-Page Links (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)
• First 2 Words: A Signal for the Scanning Eye (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)