Re: Link colors, white text on black background

> And actually, we don't automatically feel compelled to make a 
> distinction between link and visited link, especially if the overall 
> design is such that making the distinction feels contrived.

Whilst I might agree that the only justification for blue and purple is
consistency with a questionable original choice, I have found that making
the distinction is more important than designers seem to think.

One of the many current design fashions is to disable the distinction,
even on forum sites.  I had problems with white on white text on a
UK mobile phone service web site (presumably some of the text ceases
to be white if you enable scripting), so I turned off colours.  I found
that it generally (much as expected) made most sites easier to read - the
main exception being where background colours are used in place of table
borders.  But I also found that having the visited links distinction back
was very useful, in particular for the forums, where it meant I could
easily find threads that I had been interested in on previous sessionns.

My view, therefore, is that current web design practice veers too far
towards disabling visited colours.

Received on Wednesday, 11 June 2003 01:48:43 UTC