I don't think links are visible at a glance

[cst1992]

Below is a post I made on one of the forums:

It's showing a bit blown-up in the above image, but is the link visible at a glance? If not, could we make it a bit more contrasting by maybe, deepening the blue color a bit?

 

[Frick]

I think it is.

 

[Toothless]

You can mouse hover over and see what the link is before clicking..

 

[GerKNG]

looks good to me.

 

[cst1992]

You can mouse hover over and see what the link is before clicking..

That's not the issue here - is it visible at a glance?
There's no underline unlike on some other sites, so if you were browsing at a brisk pace, would you notice the link at all?

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Yeah I believe under lines would help.

 

[Wirko]

That's not the issue here - is it visible at a glance?
There's no underline unlike on some other sites, so if you were browsing at a brisk pace, would you notice the link at all?

Does it matter? What's the use of links and linked content if the article itself is too long to read?

 

[dgianstefani]

They're pretty clearly a different colour to me.

 

[ty_ger]

The link is very visible to me at a glance.
Maybe you can try some monitor color calibration tests and see if your color, brightness, or contrast is messed up.

 

[cst1992]

What's the use of links and linked content if the article itself is too long to read?

Eh?

 

[KrazyT]

Visible on my cheap chroomebook, and on others systems (phone & PC)
I don't know if it's possible, but maybe an option to choose the color of the link ?
Maybe it could help ones with eyes problems ?
Or the traditional underlined works well

 

[iameatingjam]

I can see it fine but you know, different monitors, different eyeballs etc. I like the underline idea.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Think a lot of people use dark mode every where browser extension and having white text the light blue links "I believe it's even a different color blue" is a lot more obvious although I do not use it.

White background black text and light blue isn't near as obvious.
@W1zzard already stated a dark theme isn't going to happen so that's why I mentioned dark mode every where plugin/ extension.

 

[cst1992]

So, I guess it's a contrast thing.

I have two laptops, and since some people stated that they are able to see the link fine, I checked on my other laptop as well as a few friends' laptops as well.

My laptop, the HP Envy X360 model, has very little difference between the two. But a friend's Dell Latitude 3410 model has much more contrast between the black and blue, and I can see it fine, and at once.

Weird.

 

[cvaldes]

That's not the issue here - is it visible at a glance?
There's no underline unlike on some other sites, so if you were browsing at a brisk pace, would you notice the link at all?

This is really a design decision by the site operator.

In the Nineties, websites almost always had underlined hyperlinks and the color changed after you visited the link.

Like this:

Without moving your mouse, you already know what is clickable and what isn't. The search box is clearly defined. The old school "Search" button is a browser element, not graphical. Of course, in the Nineties most people were still on dialup, not conducive to massive graphics files.

CSS pretty much destroyed all that. All of a sudden, web designers started recoloring hyperlinks, removing underlines, and basically making it harder to use a webpage for the sake of prettiness. TPU is no exception.

Yes, there are tools to make hyperlinks more obvious (browser extensions, whatnot) but in many ways, website UI useability is far worse today than was in the Nineties. That's on a computer browser. For a touchscreen device, you are pretty much forced to poke around. That's really bad design philosophy. The guys who wrote the first web UI design books in the mid-Nineties railed at this kind of stupidity.

Hyperlinks on TPU are especially difficult to see on Windows PCs using regular browsers. They are slightly easier to see on Macs. I suppose this is a function of the browser, rendering engine and how they are implemented. And you really need to do that onMouseOver crap to see the underlines. Bad, bad, bad design.

Even my avatar shows non-compliance. It's a 1-pixel transparent GIF. If HTML compliance was followed, it should be invisible regardless of the background color. Here at TPU, it is not. It's invisible only on pages that have a white background but not the light grey used for the forum column that displays user info.

So basically you are wishing for 90's era HTML coding and UI design principles.

 

[freeagent]

Hi,
Think a lot of people use dark mode every where browser extension and having white text the light blue links "I believe it's even a different color blue" is a lot more obvious although I do not use it.

This is literally the only website that blinds me every single day

But it is the first website I visit when I wake up

Edge on PC, and Safari on my phone, and yep, dark mode is enabled, but this website is different

 

[Wirko]

Even my avatar shows non-compliance. It's a 1-pixel transparent GIF. If HTML compliance was followed, it should be invisible regardless of the background color. Here at TPU, it is not. It's invisible only on pages that have a white background but not the light grey used for the forum column that displays user info.

This caught my attention so I went looking ... The avatar (the <img> element) has its own background-color CSS property, which on TPU is set to #fefefe. So the browsers display what they are supposed to.

 

[cst1992]

This is really a design decision by the site operator.

In the Nineties, websites almost always had underlined hyperlinks and the color changed after you visited the link.

I know that - I am a web developer by trade.

 

[SL2]

It's usually good enough when you read the thread for the first time, but then you go back a few days/weeks later and start scrolling through just to find a link, and that's when it's harder to find.

This is of course easier to find in a thread than the current links, but if you also use bold you make even it more easy to find.

Actually, bold makes a bigger difference than underlined, IMO.

A "Links in bold" optional setting maybe?

 

[Jacky_BEL]

OP has a point that links are not so visible at a glance.

When you are actually reading the topic, i guess you will notice the difference and see that it is in fact a link.
But not everybody was born with equally good eyesight and maybe this is more of a problem than first imagined.

 

[Dr. Dro]

I believe this is an issue with Xenforo rather than TPU itself. Other Xenforo forums are quite similar. What could be done in the interest of safety is add an automatic appendage to both identify a link embedded in a word and show which domain the link points to. For example: TechPowerUp main page (site: techpowerup.com)

Steam Community forum already does this.

 

[cvaldes]

I know that - I am a web developer by trade.

I have no idea what anyone here does for a living. There are a couple of people to claim to run their own PC repair shops, that's all I remember. And you mentioning you are a web developer today is probably something I won't remember a month from now. I might vaguely remember someone mentioning it but I certainly won't remember who it was. I read too much sh!t on the Internet from too many people.

Anyhow, web UI in 2024 spans a large spectrum of good and bad choices. For most sites, the latter greatly outnumber the former.

Just because someone make websites for a living doesn't mean they're good at it. There are quack physicians, sucky plumbers, incompetent attorneys, bad musicians, lousy politicians, corrupt cops, whatever.

There are also smart people who occasionally make mistakes.

I've voiced my opinion about some of this site's design choices periodically. But I've said enough about those.

 

[ThrashZone]

It's usually good enough when you read the thread for the first time, but then you go back a few days/weeks later and start scrolling through just to find a link, and that's when it's harder to find.

This is of course easier to find in a thread than the current links, but if you also use bold you make even it more easy to find.

Actually, bold makes a bigger difference than underlined, IMO.

A "Links in bold" optional setting maybe?

Hi,
Underline links is a ms office feature though so more familiar usually.

 

[SL2]

Hi,
Underline links is a ms office feature though so more familiar usually.

I agree, although I'm not sure it makes enough visual difference like bold links does.

 

[ty_ger]

I feel bad for website operators. Can't make everyone happy. I think the current links are very noticable, and I would be annoyed by underlined and/or bold versions. Underline is harder to read, I think, and bold is forceful and ugly. Also a bold link undermines the use of bold. Is something bold because someone is trying to emphasize an important point, or is it just another stupid link? Why is a link so important anyway? Why scroll through fast looking for links rather than reading the content and stumbling upon the supporting evidence in the link during the process?