"Purple Links"

chaos

chaos

Tournament Banned
is a Site Content Manageris a Battle Simulator Administratoris a Top Programmeris a Top Community Contributoris a Top Smogon Discord Contributoris a Contributor to Smogonis an Administratoris a Tournament Director Alumnusis a Researcher Alumnus
Owner
I have done a lot of usability testing and research to justify Smogon's slightly altered appearance. One thing I find advocated on sites is the use of a different color for "visited links" (usually purple instead of blue). I don't know about you all, but I know where I've been and I find the purple links "dirty."

Then again, this site's audience is more of a hip internet-savvy group (more than half of our readers use Firefox for instance) and most usability sites mention elders and users with disabilities. What do you all think?

in short: Do you get annoyed with purple links for places you've already been to?
 
Yeah, I dont like the look of them.. I am kinda neurotic about those things and will always click links in patterns so it doesnt get ugly.

However, I do have memories of being like "god I have been here already". Though on the other hand it never bothered me on IRC.

In short, I have no idea - I probably shouldnt have posted.

Have a nice day.
 
I can't stand them. Not only are they ugly, but they throw out the design that you create (because not everything is consistant) and I don't want to be reminded that I've already been somewhere because I will probably go there again (example: battledex or a forums link, even though I go straight to smogon.com/forums) and as you've mentioned before, the target audience is very tech savvy. So I really dont see a need for them.
 
I'm with pretty much everyone else that has posted saying that they aren't necessary. I know where I've been, and since I generally visit the same links repeatedly anyway it would serve little purpose.
 
i dont mind them, but i think theyre invaluable if you have like 20 links in a row/column. but then, how often does that happen?
 
I prefer monochrome stuff like blue (unvisited) and light blue (visited). It functions and it still looks all right. I'd take purple over no color for visited links though. They can be helpful.
 
I say we keep it, but change the color. purple isn't properly... attractive. However, I do like to know where I've been before.
 
i don't really care much either way but I like knowing where I've already been. whatever the majority votes, I guess.
 
I say either change the color to something that isn't fugly or remove them altogether. I personally don't really need to know where I've been, I'm with Aeolus on all that.
 
Whenever a site uses purple (or some other color) links, I find that I have to click every single link on the page to make them purple as well. It results into a cycle, since the links lead to even more pages, and then I have to forcibly break out of that cycle.

Aside from that, I still don't like the way they look -- even if they're not purple. Like hybrid.au said before, they ruin the consistency. And I'll still feel like I have to click on every single link.

To me, the "God, I've been here already" far outweighs "God, I have to click everything", because I usually know where I've already been. If I happen on a place I've already been, I use the Back (or Backspace) button, and no harm done.
 
I think avoiding them is a nice way to accomplish site uniformity. As others have said, it's rare for any thread I've been in to contain so many links that I cannot keep track of which I've clicked and which I haven't. If I happen to visit a link I've already been to unknowingly, it takes just a second to use the back button to correct the mistake.
 
Doomsday said:
I say we keep it, but change the color. purple isn't properly... attractive. However, I do like to know where I've been before.
Click to expand...

exactly, knowing places you've been on before helps you a lot, the colour doesn't bother me at all, though red instead of purple would be ok.
 
I don't usually notice unless I'm actively searching for the link(s) in question. Also, I think red is a better color for clicked links, though I suppose it depends on the color scheme.
 
The only time I need to know where I've already clicked is when I'm looking at porn.

Keep them all the same color. (I vote purple, keeps in the Koffing theme.)
 
To be honest I don't give a fuck being them purple or blue or black with a tad of yellow.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top