Buttons, badges etc

[khendar]

I've been hunting for the kinds of small link buttons (http://gtmcknight.com/buttons/validated.php) to use on my site and was just wondering what people thought of them in general. Are they useful, annoying, pointless etc? Do you think they add anything to the site at all or are they just pointless spacefillers?

[ronaldb66]

Graphic links/buttons can play a role in enhancing usability and complementing design--as long as an accessible alternative is offered; the ones you linked to however are so poorly executed that I really don't see any use for them.

Again: if you want to use graphic buttons, they ought to fit with the overall design of the page; you can't just slap any old button on and expect it to work.

[khendar]

The purpose of most of those icons is to inform the user of the technologies being employed in the site. The fact that they are standardised and in use in thousands of sites already seems to indicate that they are indeed useful. For example the valid (X)HTML and CSS ones are smaller, more stylish and less obtrusive than the ones W3C give out...

[ronaldb66]

I thought you were talking about graphic links/buttons in general.

Yes, if indeed your site uses valid (X)HTML and CSS and you want to show it off, you could include those links. They also may serve a purpose in creating awareness about the web standards, but beyond that their value is limited.

[mlseim]

I too thought he meant "buttons", not a graphical link icon, or whatever
you call those things. But, they are meaningless. If you're a business that
sells something, a visiting customer would want to see your products, not
your web design skills.

[VIPStephan]

My opinion about those images is that you should use them wisely, meaning not using too many of them. It can be annoying if you've got something like a "link farm" just because you wanna show that your page is valid XHTML 1.0 and CSS, has some PHP and an RSS feed, is optimized for Firefox, Safari, and Opera, tableless, conforming to section 508, hand coded, and best viewed at 1024x786 pixels.
Either use just one or two of 'em or just put small text lnks in the footer like on http://csszengarden.com.