> 5. Provide Previous and Next links
Wait! Give them better names. "Older" and "Newer" can be helpful on blogs and such, when it's not clear whether "next" means "more recent" or "deeper into the archive."
Wait! Give them better names. "Older" and "Newer" can be helpful on blogs and such, when it's not clear whether "next" means "more recent" or "deeper into the archive."
Next page and previous page.
It is usually the default wording because when making a generic paging routine you don't know if things are going to be sorted ascending or descending, or if they are in date order, numeric order, alphabetic, in the order of the author's first pet's birth month, or something else entirely. Sometimes a framework has no option for changing the captions, and sometimes we as devs are lazy...
Where the ordering is obvious next/previous is fine, but as you say it is much better to be more precise about what you mean if at all possible.
Yes, I understand that it has its roots in print. But on a screen that isn't physically chronological it becomes more complicated.
> Sometimes a framework has no option for changing the captions, and sometimes we as devs are lazy...
I guess that's a good explanation :-)
Also, we occidentals seem to place "past" and "future" in left and right, which would match "older" and "newer" in location. But we're also used in the web that a link that goes "back" usually means "back from where I come from", which if you're reading the first page of posts doesn't make much sense.
EDIT: Grammar, because English is not my first language :)
How do you conclude that we occidentals seem to place "past" and "future" in left and right?
EDIT: also the design of browser fwd/back buttons or VCR and tape recorder buttons seem to honor this theory.