Oh, the humble hyperlink, oft scrapped for the reflective button or chiseled folder tag. Once bright and blue, and underlined just for good measure, the text link has become a victim of design. And it’s hurting usability. I admit I’m a victim, but I’m trying hard to fight the power. Here’s what we designers say:

“That gaudy blue hyperlink color doesn’t work in this design! I have dust blue tabs and a buoyant green reflective button here…man, let’s make the hyperlink fit in with this.”

And before you know it, the hyperlink is so meshed with the page design that you can’t find it—and guess what? It’s not useable, clickable, actionable if I can’t find it! Check out this page from AT&T (note, a big-shot company, not some teenager’s MySpace page).

Now tell me, when you are ready to drop the five large for that smartphone, what do you do? I swear, despite the big “Buy it Now!” message, I scrolled to the bottom of the page looking for the link that would let me make the purchase. That color-themed “Buy it Now”? That’s no link, people, that’s a heading. Sure, I realized that after a second, but why make is tricky like that? Now I feel foolish and blog with scorn!

Listen, AT&T isn’t the only culprit. In fact, our company, Mind & Media, is prepping to launch a redesigned website that, among other things, addresses that same problem. We are (were) pretty much a two-color company, as is AT&T. They’re blue and orange, and we’re purple and teal. It’s tough to agree on a hyperlink color in a rigid style guide like that.

Like AT&T’s main page, M&M’s uses one company color for headings and one for links. But then you have subpages and subheadings, and here come the design issues faster than handcuffs after curfew. The choice is either stick with standard bright blue for links, which I just can’t do (I DID say I’m a designer), or inject something new. We went with option two, and you’ll see it soon enough. So c’mon, AT&T, companies, and designers everywhere, make an effort to create usable sites. Make those links easy to find. You might get more folks buying and fewer sweating the hyperlink.

For further reading on usable sites and even the humble hyperlink, check out Coding Horror. I read his much-dugg post from yesterday, and I’m sure that’s what got me churning. Cheers.