Mystery meat navigation#Click here

The epithet "mystery meat" refers to the meat products often served in American public school cafeterias whose forms have been so thoroughly reprocessed that their exact types can no longer be identified by their appearances;{{cite book |last1=Beaumont |first1=Andy |last2=Gibbons |first2=Dave |last3=Kerr |first3=Jody |last4=Stephens |first4=Jon |title=Constructing Usable Web Menus |date=11 November 2013 |publisher=Apress |isbn=978-1-4302-5358-7 |page=16 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_konCgAAQBAJ&q=% |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Flanders |first1=Vincent |last2=Peters |first2=Dean |title=Son of Web Pages that Suck: Learn Good Design by Looking at Bad Design |chapter = 8. Navigation and Mystery Meat: Mystery Meat Navigation is the Spawn of Satan |date=2002 |publisher=San Francisco, CA : Sybex |isbn=978-0-7821-4020-0 |pages=163–165 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/sonofwebpagestha00flan/page/162/mode/2up?q=mystery+meat |access-date=24 January 2023}} similarly, the destinations of links using mystery meat navigation are unknown by appearance alone. Using such a navigation has been likened to processed meat products as "you're not sure what meat you've got until you bite into it".{{cite book |last1=Brinck |first1=Tom |last2=Gergle |first2=Darren |last3=Wood |first3=Scott D. |title=Designing Web Sites that Work: Usability for the Web |date=2002 |publisher=Morgan Kaufmann |isbn=978-1-55860-658-6 |page=125 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yaj3PqRx8YgC&pg=PA125 |access-date=23 January 2023 |language=en}} Flanders originally and temporarily described the phenomenon as Saturnic navigation in reference to the Saturn Corporation, whose company website epitomized this phenomenon.{{cite web | last = Flanders | first = Vincent | title = Web Pages That Suck learn good web design by looking at bad web design - Mystery Meat Navigation | url = http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/mysterymeatnavigation.html | access-date = 14 June 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080701135808/http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/mysterymeatnavigation.html | archive-date=1 July 2008 |url-status=dead}}

The practice of mystery meat navigation may be defined as "frivolously concealing navigation options through rollovers and other tricks." It is considered problematic on information-rich websites because it makes it difficult for users to recognise the destinations of navigational hyperlinks, or to discern where they are, and this increases the time a user takes to learn to use the site.{{cite book |title=Psychology of Web Design |date=2012 |publisher=Smashing Magazine |isbn=978-3-943075-24-3 |page=84 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EguS8Hv9cP0C&pg=PA84 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Kalbach |first1=James |title=Designing Web Navigation: Optimizing the User Experience |date=28 August 2007 |publisher=O'Reilly Media |isbn=978-0-596-55378-4 |page=149 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LC0cG-vFJbcC&pg=PA149 |access-date=23 January 2023 |language=en}}

File:Iconographic navigation comparison.png

Website interface designers often decide to use iconographic navigation schemes as a way of reducing visual clutter and avoiding the need for language localisation. The exclusive use of icons without explicit labels in a website navigation may not be considered intuitive because it relies on the designer's personal understanding of the meaning of each icon.{{cite book |last1=Potts |first1=Kevin |title=Web Design and Marketing Solutions for Business Websites |date=25 November 2007 |publisher=Apress |isbn=978-1-4302-0262-2 |page=78 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zl0PTuqleFMC&pg=PA78 |access-date=23 January 2023 |language=en}} The provision of alt attributes or tooltips which are revealed on mouseover are not considered a satisfactory solution, as these techniques only introduce an element of exploration that has been likened to minesweeping ("let's roll over everything and see if any surprises pop up"). This practice has been identified as a common anti-pattern in interactive design.{{cite book |last1=Scott |first1=Bill |last2=Neil |first2=Theresa |title=Designing Web Interfaces: Principles and Patterns for Rich Interactions |date=15 January 2009 |publisher=O'Reilly Media |isbn=978-0-596-55445-3 |page=90 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1qyJdxba6qgC&pg=PA90 |language=en}} Technology writer Shelley Powers also notes that MMN often relies on JavaScript, and that this can be detrimental to usability if a browser's scripting is disabled, and to search engine optimization.{{cite book |last1=Powers |first1=Shelley |title=Painting the Web: Catching the User's Eyes - and Keeping Them on Your Site |date=1 May 2008 |publisher="O'Reilly Media, Inc." |isbn=978-0-596-55392-0 |page=16 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IrNcNfE4CRIC&pg=PA18 |access-date=23 January 2023 |language=en}}

Flanders writes, "The typical form of MMN is represented by menus composed of unrevealing icons that are replaced with explicative text only when the mouse cursor hovers over them".

Some technology commentators consider that the use of the popular phrase "Click here" as link text is a type of mystery meat navigation. It is thought to be problematic because the phrase does not indicate the content of the link target, which confuses the user.{{cite book |last1=MacDonald |first1=Diana |title=Practical UI Patterns for Design Systems: Fast-Track Interaction Design for a Seamless User Experience |date=25 June 2019 |publisher=Apress |isbn=978-1-4842-4938-3 |page=194 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E0efDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Mystery+meat%22+web+design&pg=PA194 |access-date=23 January 2023 |language=en}}

The W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, as well as organisations such as WebAIM, recommend against the use of phrases such as "click here" as link text.{{cite web|url=https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/#gl-facilitate-navigation |title=Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 |publisher=W3.org |access-date=2012-05-07}}{{cite web|url=http://webaim.org/intro/ |title=Introduction to Web Accessibility |publisher=WebAIM |access-date=2012-05-07}} According to the W3C, "Good link text should not be overly general; don't use 'click here{{sic|.'|hide=y}} [...] link text should indicate the nature of the link target".{{cite web|url=https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10-HTML-TECHS/#link-text |title=HTML Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 |publisher=W3.org |access-date=2014-07-11}} The text should also make sense when read out of context.

Furthermore, the phrase is inappropriate for users who are not using a mouse to navigate, e.g. using a keyboard or a touchscreen device. It also presents particular difficulties for blind and visually impaired users who make use of screen reader software that reviews a list of available links on a page. Pages would also suffer when printed. A further disadvantage given is that it hinders the search engine optimisation of a page.

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