- From: T.V Raman <raman@google.com>
- Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2007 08:14:26 -0800
- To: will-pearson@tiscali.co.uk
- Cc: wai-xtech@w3.org
Note: I wasn't calling to lose the semantic distinction between link and button -- what I was pointing out was that link is a specialized button. The end user *does* need to know the hierarchy of roles Will Pearson writes: > > T.V Raman wrote: > "it might be useful to think of role:link as a specialized "button". > > Button is actually a "trigger" --- a thing that when activated executes an > action. > > Links on the Web -- including html:a -- the beloved anchor element -- are in > fact specialized triggers" > > I agree with the perspective that both buttons and links trigger something; > however, I would argue that users maintain a semantic distinction between > the two. Users often think of a link as moving to another page, hence the > term link, whilst they think of a button as performing the action described > by its label. If links were to b e semantically represented as buttons then > I suspect that users would be very confused. Link text describes the linked > to content and not an action, and users would likely be looking for an > action. > > Whilst users could adapt their conceptual knowledge of a button over time > semantically treating links as buttons would likely annoy users in the > beginning. Therefore, I would think it sensible to preserve the semantic > distinction between the two. > > Will > -- Best Regards, --raman Title: Research Scientist Email: raman@google.com WWW: http://emacspeak.sf.net/raman/ Google: tv+raman GTalk: raman@google.com, tv.raman.tv@gmail.com PGP: http://emacspeak.sf.net/raman/raman-almaden.asc
Received on Monday, 26 February 2007 16:14:42 UTC