Are gateway pages the answer to PDF shock?
PDF’s in general should be avoided as they cause many usability problems. However there are times when PDF’s have their place on the web; for instance if a document is meant to the printed then PDF is the correct medium. If your site contains PDF’s it is vital that users are aware of when a link will open a PDF.
Indicating the presence of PDF links helps to avoid PDF shock; that is giving users a nasty surprise of being dumped into a PDF file. There are a number of different ways of indicating PDF links. One method is to include a PDF gateway page; a page which summarises the PDF content, warns users that they are getting a PDF file, as well as presenting the file size. Gateway pages are supposed to prevent PDF shock as well as let users determine if the PDF is worth opening. However in our labs we often see users experience difficulty with gateway pages. Users assume the gateway page is the ‘result’ and don’t continue to click the PDF file. It is in-fact breaking the link to the real file. Many government websites use this technique and I’m starting to wonder if it really is the best way to display PDF’s.
My preference would be to include the PDF symbol next to the link along with the file size. If this is included in the link anchor text then screen readers such as JAWS can easily determine the presence of PDF’s. Surely this is enough to determine the presence of PDF’s without the need for a gateway page.
What do you think is the best way of presenting PDF links?
Thanks for your feedback.
Lawrence I take on board your comments on why gateway pages can be helpful. I think if gateway pages are to be used they must be used correctly. That is, the description must be kept brief so users do not confuse the page as the final result.
Thanks U1, your advice supports the SEO recommendation too – PDFs do not rank well in Google. It is much better to have a snippet of text from the PDF in HTML, and then link of to the document.
I’m a big fan of gateway pages for PDFs, even after reading about the difficulties people experienced in your test.
Surely some clear instructions can help those who don’t get it? These are the same people that have mastered Facebook, buy stuff on Amazon and perhaps downloaded and installed an app on their PC.
Vic Gov standards for websites address PDF specifically in relation to accessibility. Hosting a PDF on a gateway page along with a link to a plain text / HTML / voice version solves that.
Other reasons why I am a fan are…
* Gateway pages are marketable. Pop a link to one in an email rather than have to explain ‘go to bla bla page and click on the link in the third para’.
* Gateway pages hold a lot of useful info relating to a doc. An abstract for example. Previous versions (again, good practice for Gov websites). Meta data. All of which you have pointed out.
* Gateway pages are good for SEO and social media: you can’t add a comment to a PDF or include a relevant tweet feed.
The way I see it all pages are gateways. This blog posts holds HTML and YouTube videos hold… video. You don’t see links such as the one below much, don’t you.
[x] Funny Baby Video (AVI – 13MB)
So yeah, long live gateway pages for PDFs!
I completely agree with providing the PDF icon and file size as a more usable and accessible alternative to a gateway. In addition to users getting confused that the gateway page is the final result, it adds one more unncessary click and one more decision point – irritating.
providing the PDF icon and file size assists with visual design and gives the user a choice immediately. It also meets the accessibility requirement to identify a link target.