Hyperlinks for many sites are about “engagement,” which often might be translated to plain language as any or all of the following, among others:
- Getting you to consume more
- Getting you to open another page with an ad on it to increase the linking site’s revenue
- Getting a kickback from an affiliate site if you purchase something (or view or click their ads)
- Identifying you as coming from the linking site
- Suggest credibility by citing a reference
- Following current/common page design practices
- Aesthetic appeal to tidiness
Why it’s interesting
This site isn’t doing any of those things. We don’t have affiliates. We don’t accept advertising, and we aren’t recommending anyone or anything except when we do it explicitly. This page isn’t about aesthetic.
It could be argued that the density of information of linked text increases cognitive load. What if this makes the intention behind what’s linked less obvious?
60 Seconds of AI is intended to be our take on something we at Dee VUI are reading and thinking about in about a minute of your time. We think this will make it easier and faster for you to do that, by simplifying our design to remove the technology from our writing.
Why you should care
You aren’t a product we’re selling to our partners. We try to provide something worth a little bit our colleagues’ time. Since we appreciate a critical perspective from our peers, we do our best to apply one to ourselves as well.
From now on, when we talk about something we’ve read, or we’re referring to something for which we think backstory might be required, you can find the links at the bottom of the page from now on. Our page may not look as cool, but we hope it increases the transparency to readers about who gets something when you click a link.
Most importantly, we don’t want you to click away while you’re reading a thing. We believe AI researchers and designers desperately need a credible discussion that’s not part of a marketing cycle. This is ours. We hope you find it useful.
Let’s have a conversation
Let us know what you think! Write us at: