[IxDA Discuss] Data on "back to top" links

[V V]

Here’s a link to Nielson’s research where he argues that linksshould be used to navigate to a different page and within-page links causesconfusion and should be avoided.  
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/within_page_links..html
  

But, a research study by usability.gov found that users are frustrated
if they have to scroll down a long page and hence they suggest providing
appropriate links that will allow the user to access the needed information
directly instead of scrolling the page. Here’s the report
http://www.usability.gov/lessons/chemo.html
  

I think that having the ‘back to top’ link facilitates ease
of use if the page is really long. Does the ‘back to top’ link always take the user
to start of the page or does it take user to back to top of the section of the
page (if the user landed to this section by following a link). In the former case,
changing the phrase from ‘back to top’ to ‘start of the page’ or ‘top of page’
followed by an up arrow will be clearer. In the latter case, using descriptive section
headings will be clearer (for e.g. ‘back to Projects’).

-Suba






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