Call To Action Link

A CTA icon is a standalone link that links to another page within the website or an external website related to the current page or to a video.

When to use

CTA links are used as navigational elements and are used on their own. They provide a middleweight option for navigation and stand out more than the normal links so use it sparingly. Like other interactive elements, too many CTA icons will clutter a page and make it difficult for users to identify their next steps.

Use CTA links when you want users to:

• Navigate to a page or entirely different site that can also be viewed (see also - variant);
• Navigate to a website where a video is shown (such as YouTube or Vimeo);

Alternatives and related components

• Use links for navigation actions that appear within or immediately after a sentence.
• Use calendar events when you link to an event.
• Use a download when there is a file to download.
• Use a CTA image when there is a link in conjunction with an image.

Anatomy

The CTA links consists of:

• Support icon: informs users at a glance about the type of the CTA;
• Text: additional information about the link;
• Link: shows the name of the page where it is being linked to;
• Container

(Interactive) states

The CTA links contains the states normal, hover and focus.

Design properties

Typography

• Text: TheSans/lg/400
• Link: TheSans/lg/700

Colors

• Supportive icon: background-color Blue/3, icon svg color white
• Text: text color Grey/4
• Link: text color Blue/3
• Container: border-top and border-bottom line color Grey/2

Interactive states

Hover:

link text color Blue/4, supportive icon background-color Blue/4

Focus:

link text color Blue/4, supportive icon background-color Blue/4, container border color Ocher/5

Structure

• Supportive icon: background circle size 64px, icon size 24px, padding-left 16px, padding-right 24px
• Text and link: padding-right 16px
• Container: padding-top and padding-bottom 24px, border line 1px

Accessibility

[technical requirements]

Content guidelines

Text

See also variant

The text should:

• Be supportive to the link.
• Briefly provide context to the surrounding text as needed.
• Be able for users to anticipate what will happen when they click on the CTA icon.
• Always start with ‘Zie ook:’.

Video variant

The text should:

• Be supportive to the link.
• Start with a link when referring to a video.
• Be able for users to anticipate what will happen when they click on the CTA link.
• Be scannable avoiding unnecessary words.
• Briefly provide context to the surrounding text as needed.
• Always start with ‘Bekijk’.

Link

See also variant

The link should:

• Must show a short and clear page name being linked to.

Video variant

The link should:

• Provide enough context use the {verb}+{noun} format unless the action is clear with a single verb.

Best practices

Do's

CTA links should:

• Link to a page related to the current page;
• Link to a video;
• Be placed under or between a text (usually in a list);
• Be placed below each other if there are several CTA links;

Don'ts

CTA links should:

• Not be used as a standalone link like ‘Learn more’ or ‘Forgot password?’;
• Not contain more than 3 CTA link in a row;

Logic

• Always show the first and current page
• Only use the collapsed icon if there are more than 4 pages.
• If the collapsed icon is used, always show on the right side the underlying page and next to this the current page.
  • If there are for example 5 pages, then show the homepage (1), hide the 2nd and 3rd page and show the 4th and current page (5).
  • If there are for example 6 pages, then show the homepage

References

• Figma Design