Research Findings: User Perception of In-Page Links

Despite their ability to facilitate content navigation, in-page links have historically
raised usability concerns as they break the mental model for a link. Traditionally,
on the web, links lead to external pages. Due to this reason, when in-page links
initially made their appearance on the web, our recommendation was to avoid
them.

However, with the increased prevalence of in-page links, we have seen a growing
familiarity with this design pattern. A few years ago, we reassessed the use of in-
page links and provided guidelines for its implementation (which are still applicable
today). In our most recent study on how people read long content pages, we
observed participants naturally engage with the table-of-contents links; these
behaviors demonstrate increased awareness and understanding of the interaction
pattern. Many study participants used, commented on, and appreciated the in-
page links in tables of contents. Below we highlight some key research findings.

Are In-Page Links Still Confusing?

Most of our study participants, regardless of age, were familiar with in-page
links. Only 2 out of 11 participants showed no engagement with in-page links when
those were presented to them.

Despite the familiarity, in-page links, when not formatted with intention, can
still surprise users. One participant, who adeptly used in-page links to navigate
two other pages, expected that the in-page links on the Phone Arena page take her
to another page. The confusion is likely due to how these links were styled on the
Phone Arena page: they were right above the Read More section and looked
exactly like regular links that lead to other pages. It is likely that
the proximity and similarity of the two sections tricked her into thinking that the links
from both sections serve the same purpose.