Good morning Abbo,

As a web designer, I've never been a fan of styling "visited" links. It breaks my "Keep It Simple" rule, and I feel that if the UI design and architecture are successful, the visited link style is unnecessary. 
 
I wonder how others that are not web designers feel about this?
 
stephe.
 


>>> Abbo Peterson <[log in to unmask]> 3/19/2009 10:53 PM >>>
I'm curious if there are guidelines or findings about using the  
a:visited link style in navigation links.

I know there's a benefit to using a different color for the a:visited  
link style, to help users get feedback about which links they've  
viewed. That seems most valuable when the page contains many links,  
whether they're long lists or embedded within text.

My question is related to the use of the visited link style in a text- 
based left side navigation. An example might be a navigation list of  
20 projects. When you click a link (colored white), you view a  
project page with its own context-specific navigation. When you  
return to the project listing page, imagine that link is now colored  
gray.

Add the complication that each navigation link has a couple-word  
description under it, colored gray. Once you've visited the project  
page, now the navigation item and the description are both gray. From  
a design standpoint, you've just made the navigation item "invisible"  
and it doesn't stand out anymore.

I'm very tempted to not use the visited link style, but I was hoping  
to get some statistics or feedback about whether this style is used  
much anymore.

Thanks in advance.

Abbo


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