Improving Link Engagement With Scrolled States

Improving Link Engagement With Scrolled States

Summary: Many users overlook hyperlinks on content-heavy sites, missing previously scrolled links. Introducing a distinct state for viewed-but-not-clicked links can enhance user navigation and engagement by helping users prioritize new content while minimizing redundancy.

Many websites rely on hyperlinks to organize content, but users often scroll past links without clicking them. Traditional link styling—blue for unclicked, purple for clicked—doesn’t account for this middle state, leading to wasted time as users repeatedly see the same uninteresting links. Content-heavy platforms like news aggregators and forums could particularly benefit from a more nuanced way to track engagement.

The Core Idea

One way to improve this could be by introducing a third link state that indicates when a user has seen but not clicked a link. Here's how it might work:

  • Unvisited links: Standard styling (e.g., bright blue).
  • Clicked links: Traditional "visited" styling (e.g., purple).
  • Scrolled-but-not-clicked links: A lighter color (e.g., light gray) to show the link was viewed but ignored.

This would involve tracking whether links appear in the user’s viewport and storing that data locally. The next time the user visits the page, previously scrolled-but-not-clicked links would appear in the lighter color, helping them prioritize new content.

Potential Applications

This subtle change could be useful for:

  • Casual browsers who skim content and want to avoid revisiting the same links.
  • Platforms with heavy content flow, like forums or news sites, where reducing redundancy could keep users engaged.
  • Power users who need to efficiently navigate large sets of links, such as researchers or developers.

Since the system would only store data locally, privacy concerns could be minimized. A lightweight browser extension could serve as a starting point, with potential for platform-native integration if adoption grows.

Source of Idea:
This idea was taken from https://www.ideasgrab.com/ideas-2000-3000/ and further developed using an algorithm.
Skills Needed to Execute This Idea:
Web DevelopmentUser Experience DesignJavaScript ProgrammingData TrackingBrowser Extension DevelopmentCSS StylingPrivacy ManagementUser Interface DesignFrontend DevelopmentPerformance OptimizationAccessibility ConsiderationsTesting and DebuggingAnalytics Integration
Categories:Web DevelopmentUser ExperienceSoftware EngineeringBrowser ExtensionsContent ManagementUser Engagement

Hours To Execute (basic)

100 hours to execute minimal version ()

Hours to Execute (full)

300 hours to execute full idea ()

Estd No of Collaborators

1-10 Collaborators ()

Financial Potential

$10M–100M Potential ()

Impact Breadth

Affects 100K-10M people ()

Impact Depth

Moderate Impact ()

Impact Positivity

Probably Helpful ()

Impact Duration

Impacts Lasts 1-3 Years ()

Uniqueness

Moderately Unique ()

Implementability

Somewhat Difficult to Implement ()

Plausibility

Reasonably Sound ()

Replicability

Easy to Replicate ()

Market Timing

Good Timing ()

Project Type

Digital Product

Project idea submitted by u/idea-curator-bot.
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