5 ms·

I wish more websites, especially those actively writing about UX, would style visited links differently. When you're reading one of these myths, there is no li

by bbx 10y ago

I wish more websites, especially those actively writing about UX, would style visited links differently. When you're reading one of these myths, there is no link to go to the next one ; you need to go back to the index. But since visited links are not differentiated, it's difficult to know which item you've just read, and where to go next. Just using "a:link" instead would yield a more satisfying design: http://i.imgur.com/oz6Hznw.png http://i.imgur.com/oz6Hznw.png

barrkel 10y ago
I didn't know they were links until I read this comment! No hover on mobile.
- ldjb 10y ago
  I'm not too sure what the solution is. You could make the links blue and/or underline them, but that could harm readability and aesthetics. I suppose some sort of icon (like an arrowhead) next to each link could help them to afford clicking.
  - userbinator 10y ago
    You could make the links blue and/or underline them, but that could harm readability and aesthetics. I doubt it, blue and underlined is pretty much a standard. I think it looks perfectly fine and clear. There's a reason most browsers' default stylesheet will make links look like that.
    - ldjb 10y ago
      It might be an improvement in this case, though it's common advice to limit the colour palette to a handful of colours. Blue text also doesn't always stand out against certain background colours. Underlining links (particularly where there are many of them) can harm readability, which is why many popular websites do not do it, including the major search engines, Wikipedia and even Hacker News.
  - pbhjpbhj 10y ago
    A little chain-link icon [similar to the infinity symbol] used to be used on many sites (a while back) to emphasis the presence of a link.
  - runarberg 10y ago
    A simple heading (`<h1>Table of content</h1>`, `<h1>Content</h1>`, `<h1>Articles</h1>`, `<h1>Links</h1>`) should get the message across. --- Edit: Added an example.
    - ldjb 10y ago
      I suppose you could put a heading called 'Myths' above the list of myths. But I don't see how that would help the user realise they are links. Of course, you could call the heading 'Links', but that shouldn't be necessary -- the links themselves should afford clicking. It would be like putting a label called "push" above a door handle when the handle itself should afford pushing.
  - gilgongo 10y ago
    The OP is referring to "visited links", not the style of the unfollowed links. Not having a followed link style in this context degrades the usability of the website because you have to rely on your memory of which links you have followed on the list and which you have yet to see. This is an important and little remembered point in the current interaction design "dark age", as Bruce Tognazzini puts it, and Norman et. al. <a href="https://www.fastcodesign.com/3053406/how-apple-is-giving-design-a-bad-name">have https://www.fastcodesign.com/3053406/how-apple-is-giving-des... recently written about</a>. (It is of course also true that the unfollowed link style is not very clear)
    - ldjb 10y ago
      I'm aware of what the OP was referring to. I was replying to barrkel's comment about not realising the links were links. But I absolutely agree with you that visited links looking like unfollowed links is a usability issue.
unexistance 10y ago
if it helps, I've been able to differentiate both type of links using plain Firefox The trick is to always override the color options in Firefox settings p/s: I'm starting to follow people in HN through this way too, and keeping up with my weekly reading materials (xkcd, manga, etc) But I took it one step above by disabling colors altogether & sees the web as (mostly) wall of light text on dark background
- hollerith 10y ago
  Some sites are unusable what that setting. For example, it makes the voting arrows on HN invisible. And it makes the chess boards on lichess.org invisible. Is there a way to opt in to the site's color choices per domain?
  - leppr 10y ago
    Not very convenient but using Stylish it comes down to adding entries into a text file: https://github.com/stylish-userstyles/stylish/wiki/Applying-styles-to-specific-sites https://github.com/stylish-userstyles/stylish/wiki/Applying-...
  - unexistance 10y ago
    yeah, some sites will 'break', but not a problem to me so far... I suspect it can be done via Firefox's userchrome.css file, but I never dabble in it
    - ronjouch 10y ago
      It's userContent.css ; userChrome.css is used to style the browser itself (the "chrome" of the browser, that is to say what is around the content: location bar, menus, etc. Yes the collision with this other Google browser is confusing these days, but Firefox/IE usage of the term predates Google Chrome, it's actually Google Chrome that hogged the term, not the other way). But be careful, Electrolysis (multi-process firefox) broke userContent.css, if you are running it you'll have to either disable Electrolysis, or use Stylish. Bugzilla: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1046166 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1046166 I like userContent.css, it's a single css file, easy to understand/sync. Hope a fix will arrive someday.
threatofrain 10y ago
I find the that link history is situationally useful, like for blogs with random scattered links, but I'd feel annoyed if a technical ebook I was reading marked prior chapters as "read" as soon as I clicked it. I think many situations are actually like the latter.
Yaggo 10y ago
I wish all websites used links. I'm totally fine with my click event being captured and handled client-side, but please use <a> element with working href, so that I can cmd+click into new tab, copy-paste to friend, etc. Please do not broke the fundamentals of the web for sake of single page apps – you can eat the cake and have the cake!

by bbx 10y ago

barrkel 10y ago

I didn't know they were links until I read this comment! No hover on mobile.

ldjb 10y ago
I'm not too sure what the solution is. You could make the links blue and/or underline them, but that could harm readability and aesthetics. I suppose some sort of icon (like an arrowhead) next to each link could help them to afford clicking.
- userbinator 10y ago
  You could make the links blue and/or underline them, but that could harm readability and aesthetics. I doubt it, blue and underlined is pretty much a standard. I think it looks perfectly fine and clear. There's a reason most browsers' default stylesheet will make links look like that.
  - ldjb 10y ago
    It might be an improvement in this case, though it's common advice to limit the colour palette to a handful of colours. Blue text also doesn't always stand out against certain background colours. Underlining links (particularly where there are many of them) can harm readability, which is why many popular websites do not do it, including the major search engines, Wikipedia and even Hacker News.
- pbhjpbhj 10y ago
  A little chain-link icon [similar to the infinity symbol] used to be used on many sites (a while back) to emphasis the presence of a link.
- runarberg 10y ago
  A simple heading (`<h1>Table of content</h1>`, `<h1>Content</h1>`, `<h1>Articles</h1>`, `<h1>Links</h1>`) should get the message across. --- Edit: Added an example.
  - ldjb 10y ago
    I suppose you could put a heading called 'Myths' above the list of myths. But I don't see how that would help the user realise they are links. Of course, you could call the heading 'Links', but that shouldn't be necessary -- the links themselves should afford clicking. It would be like putting a label called "push" above a door handle when the handle itself should afford pushing.
- gilgongo 10y ago
  The OP is referring to "visited links", not the style of the unfollowed links. Not having a followed link style in this context degrades the usability of the website because you have to rely on your memory of which links you have followed on the list and which you have yet to see. This is an important and little remembered point in the current interaction design "dark age", as Bruce Tognazzini puts it, and Norman et. al. <a href="https://www.fastcodesign.com/3053406/how-apple-is-giving-design-a-bad-name">have https://www.fastcodesign.com/3053406/how-apple-is-giving-des... recently written about</a>. (It is of course also true that the unfollowed link style is not very clear)
  - ldjb 10y ago
    I'm aware of what the OP was referring to. I was replying to barrkel's comment about not realising the links were links. But I absolutely agree with you that visited links looking like unfollowed links is a usability issue.

unexistance 10y ago

if it helps, I've been able to differentiate both type of links using plain Firefox The trick is to always override the color options in Firefox settings p/s: I'm starting to follow people in HN through this way too, and keeping up with my weekly reading materials (xkcd, manga, etc) But I took it one step above by disabling colors altogether & sees the web as (mostly) wall of light text on dark background

hollerith 10y ago
Some sites are unusable what that setting. For example, it makes the voting arrows on HN invisible. And it makes the chess boards on lichess.org invisible. Is there a way to opt in to the site's color choices per domain?
- leppr 10y ago
  Not very convenient but using Stylish it comes down to adding entries into a text file: https://github.com/stylish-userstyles/stylish/wiki/Applying-styles-to-specific-sites https://github.com/stylish-userstyles/stylish/wiki/Applying-...
- unexistance 10y ago
  yeah, some sites will 'break', but not a problem to me so far... I suspect it can be done via Firefox's userchrome.css file, but I never dabble in it
  - ronjouch 10y ago
    It's userContent.css ; userChrome.css is used to style the browser itself (the "chrome" of the browser, that is to say what is around the content: location bar, menus, etc. Yes the collision with this other Google browser is confusing these days, but Firefox/IE usage of the term predates Google Chrome, it's actually Google Chrome that hogged the term, not the other way). But be careful, Electrolysis (multi-process firefox) broke userContent.css, if you are running it you'll have to either disable Electrolysis, or use Stylish. Bugzilla: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1046166 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1046166 I like userContent.css, it's a single css file, easy to understand/sync. Hope a fix will arrive someday.

threatofrain 10y ago

I find the that link history is situationally useful, like for blogs with random scattered links, but I'd feel annoyed if a technical ebook I was reading marked prior chapters as "read" as soon as I clicked it. I think many situations are actually like the latter.

Yaggo 10y ago

I wish all websites used links. I'm totally fine with my click event being captured and handled client-side, but please use <a> element with working href, so that I can cmd+click into new tab, copy-paste to friend, etc. Please do not broke the fundamentals of the web for sake of single page apps – you can eat the cake and have the cake!