It is a sad think that Usability, Web Design and Hypertext Theory so often live on separate islands. I love it when web pages are beautiful, easy to read, have reallly cool graphics. I also think usability studies have contributed a lot to the web we have today. In good sites, usability and (graphic) web design enhance each other, but it doesn't happen too often.
I also have a longing for old-school hypertext. The Voyager CD-ROMS, the Storyspace School hypertext novels, Victorian Web and the like. But these are usually very different from the web sites made by authors of the web generation, with less navigation, and often more confused readers.
Generally, I think it is a good thing to tell your readers where a link will take you.
The trouble with most usability literature, as it appears to me, is that a usability study starts with the assumption that the user is about to perform a task. Most often, to find something, the answer to a preconceived question.
We turn to literature with a different attitude. If anyone reads this blog, it is probably not because they search for a specific answer, but because they are interested in what I have to say. (I check my server stats: you are very few.)
A blog, or an article, is an offer. "Here's something I think about, maybe you'd like to hear". When there are links, they are recommendations: "here's more about this, if you'd like", or "I think you might find this interesting".
But these links are also recommendations for me to leave what I am reading right now, to go away to some other page. When I think about whether I would like to do that, I need something to base that judgement on. You should take care to explain to me what the link leads to, and why I would want to go there, while not interrupting the flow of your present article too much. That is quite difficult in most cases.
Years ago, George Landow called it the "rhetoric of departure", using airport terminals as a metaphor. I think the travel metaphor is good, but maybe we should think of in-text links as recommendations in a guide book. When you are at a new and interesting place, why not consider to take a scenic detour, if you have the time. A guide book author would not write "when at St.Peter's, turn right and go into the dark alley." Without any further explanation. It makes no sense. Most in-text links in blogs and articles are exactly like that, however.
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