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PDF links - a reoccuring usability and accessibiliy issue?

Author

Alex Rehm
Alex Rehm is a Web Architect working with a number of high-profile clients in the online travel industry. He has helped build and redesign over 30 UK-based travel specialists and has been writing usability & accessibility reports and design critiques since 2003.

In his spare time Alexander works as a freelancer & visiting lecturer in the South East of England and enjoys taking time out playing video games or writing for What was I thinking?

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PDF links - a reoccuring usability and accessibiliy issue?

More and more B2B and B2C sites lose customers thanks to the simplest things. This article focuses on optimising PDF's and how to present them on the web.

Over the last couple of months I have been working on a great number of design, usability and accessibility reports for B2B and B2C clients of mine. I was reviewing a website a few days ago using my usual set of browsers (IE 5.5 - IE7, FF2 FF3, Opera 8 - 9.5, Safari) then I was going through a product page and clicked on a link to read more about a link called “Course documents”. This was when one of my old test machines' fans started spinning up and the task manager showed a significant increase of Memory and CPU usage. Acrobat was loading up while IE6 and IE5.5 came to a grinding halt. After about a minute of nothingness the browsers displayed a 3 page PDF with a 1 page full-size image and 2 pages of information about the course. At about the same time three of my 8 volunteers (aged 22 - 46) frantically tried to force-close their IE browser. The reason: "I think the site just crashed my browser and nothing would work any more"

3 out of 8 testers thought the website crashed their browser. This is an interesting statistic, considering that these might make up your target audience.

Best practice for PDF links

Optimise your PDFs: Since these PDFs are going to be web-only make sure you optimise the PDFs to the smallest possible file size. Reduce image resolutions (to about 72-150dpi max) or turn them greyscale. Another good idea would be to remove unneccesary pages.
Link location: think about moving PDF downloads either into another location entirely, or - if that is not possible or not wanted due to the design and layout - distance the PDF link from other links.
Show a file size: here in the EU we still have quite a number of users with dial-up or very slow connections, so it is best practice to show your users what they can expect and how long it may take them.
Display a PDF icon: the best visual reference that the link you will be clicking on will be a PDF

This is what a PDF link could look like:

PDF download link - the best practice solution - Whatwasithinking.co.uk

Closing comments

If you are using PDF links within your site to give users something "to take home with", keep in mind how PDF downloads will affect their intention of using your site or buying your product. Test your site from the eye of a user who may or may not be as computer-literate as you are - he could still be your target audience!

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Members's Comments

Posted at July 18th, 2008 by Bocaj

Yeah i always suffer at the hands of pdf ]:

I've actually got a plugin for FF now that shows me what filetype a link goes to before i click :)

If a site offers me a pdf, i'll do everything to avoid it... if it's unavoidable i'll debate wether i even need it (one online shop had prices in .pdf, i didn't purchase anything... another example would be the b&b in blackpool, i rang up instead asking for prices).

I don't see why people don't just offer the pdf, and a html alternative?

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