Posted by tyabut on October 28, 2010 at 7:01pm
11 followers
| Project: | Bluecheese |
| Component: | User interface |
| Category: | bug report |
| Priority: | normal |
| Assigned: | dww |
| Status: | needs work |
| Issue tags: | drupal.org redesign |
Issue Summary
I primarily use drupal.org for searching, but in the new design the visited link color is the same as the active link color. The new design forces me to remember which results I've already viewed, and yes - I have clicked on the same results a few times.
Comments
#1
Confirmed. bluebeach did use a somewhat darker blue for visited links. I think that'd be worth bringing back.
#2
Here's a first stab. I'm currently reproducing the behavior from bluecheese where the links get darker once you visit them. However, I've never understood this convention on the web. On a white background, the darker links "pop" more and seem to get more attention from your eyes. On sites that I'm designing, I usually reverse this, so that links are darker (more obvious) by default, and once you visit them, they lighten up so they blend more into the background.
Anyway, here's a few screenshots. Obviously it's pretty trivial to reverse which shade of blue is for visited...
Frontpage
Dashboard blocks
This is currently deployed on http://redesign.drupal.org if you want to play around with it there.
Thoughts?
#3
wow. the visited color looks more better than the normal link color. it's more like tell me something highlighted than I visited that link.
#4
I can get used to any visited link identifier, but I think @dww is right about the darker links commanding more attention than the lighter ones. Is reversing an option? Using a lighter blue than is currently used instead for visited links would probably be hard to read.
#5
I agree with darker getting more attention; +1 for reversing (lighter for visited links, darker for non-visited ones).
On another note, one of the more common tasks Contributors Work On Daily is on the issue queues, so it's really.. uhm... annoying that I keep clicking on issues I've already read. Perhaps we can even think about a different link color or styling for issue links.
#6
Just chiming in that having a visual difference for visited/unvisited is a big plus and I consider it a usability guideline. I have found myself revisiting pages here unintentionally lately, so this is going to help.
Please, continue!
#7
I thought I would mention, this would be really helpful while using the search function of this site. Since you can't split out results from just issues or just forums (hint), I usually spend 5-10 minutes trying to play Jeopardy with the search engine trying to get just the right question that puts the article I hope exists on the first page.
If the titles of the articles I have already read (that didn't help) were another color, I'd waste less time reading the article a second time. And hitting "back" which may cause the query to run again depending on how the cache is set up?
#8
Agreed on separating the colors, and the clicked color should be less-saturated.
However, I do want to keep some of the current lightness. I think the darker blue makes pages look too dark. Both colors probably have to be changed to have enough contrast.
See http://drupal.org/node/1051644 for our current palette, which will have expanded swatches once Drupal.org's aggregated CSS is cleared. It is copied from the original, https://infrastructure.drupal.org/drupal.org-style-guide/colour.html and needs to evolve with the site.
#9
Come on drupal! Just give as different color for visited links, cause this is frustrating! I use your search a lot, and I hate when I open some page 2 or more times, just cause I don;t know that I've opened it before. I don't care what color will you use, just use different one. It's been months since this issue is opened and you still haven't done anything.
#10
I cleared my cache but still no difference for pages I have visited.
#11
I use firebug in Mozilla and remove their color for links. But it is annoying to do it over and over.
#12
I guess I could add a style to chrome\userContent.css for this. It will be comfortable there along with the font and other item overrides I've been putting in to make the new site more readable at least on Firefox.
http://drupal.org/node/949418
#13
Short version of #8: we need to pick the colors. I think the darker blue is too dark. We need two colors, probably shades of blue, that look good. https://infrastructure.drupal.org/drupal.org-style-guide/colour.html might help.
#14
Whilst this is decided, using Greasemonkey I just added this bit to the Dreditor GM script:
function addGlobalStyle(css) {var head, style;
head = document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0];
if (!head) { return; }
style = document.createElement('style');
style.type = 'text/css';
style.innerHTML = css;
head.appendChild(style);
}
// Add "Grey" color from https://infrastructure.drupal.org/drupal.org-style-guide/colour.html
addGlobalStyle('#page a:visited { color:#9d9d93; }');
Maybe this'll help some of you try out a color on a longer term.
#15
I would like to ask that the colors be DIFFERENT. "Shades of blue" that are just ever so subtlely different does not meet the need. I need to quickly read the page and know which link I have been to. How about a green and a blue?
#16
Subscribing. I think this is an important, if not critical, UX issue. It's very confusing to not be able to tell what you've already looked at.
Changing colors will not address accessibility. What's ultimately needed is a change in saturation -- whether color changes or not. The "normal" blue has a rather dark character, so for colorblind people the visited style probably should be lighter … and for the rest of us also perhaps less blue, more gray.
#17
This is definitely a usability issue and a black eye for Drupal. I think that the color of visited links is irrelevant so long as it's noticeably different than unvisited links. Why not just use the default purple that everyone recognizes?
#18
I closed this as a duplicate #953664: CSS issue - a:visited color on Search Results .
#19
Please...
#20
Just giving this issue a better title. Also, closed #1344178: Add distictive color to css a:visited on D.O as a duplicate; this still is needed.
I think the visited link needs to be less noticeable (so but still needs to work on the gray background of the sidebar, or we have a separate visited link color for the sidebar) than the not-visited, so the links they haven't seen stand out more.
This is where the Color style guide lives now. http://drupal.org/node/1051644 ... so if the color doesn't exist, we can add in our own. Whatever is decided, we need to reflect that decision here too!
#21
If you aren't happy with the styling (of any site, really) I suggest trying the Stylebot extension. I use it in Chrome. It let me add a:visited styling for drupal.org in a matter of seconds.