Under the Fuzzy Green Hat

High on the list of things that screw with my brain are blogs that use the Next and Previous links wrong. Of course, by “wrong,” I mean “doesn’t sync up with how I want it to work.”

See, here’s how my brain expects things to be: it thinks of a blog as a series of events along a timeline. When I reach the bottom of the page, I’m expecting to see a Back or Previous button, because my brain wants to dig back in the past for more entries. Conversely, in the odd occasion I want to see entries closer to the present, my brain jumps for the Forward or Next button.

But for some reason, most blogs (including many Tumblr themes, by default) just decide to go with Next to view older entries, and Previous to view newer things — which gets annoying, especially when I’m trying to focus on more important things, like, say, reading content.

So, if you think the same way I do, why not take a moment and make your little piece of the Internet a bit more usable? Change that Next link to something more straightforward, like Earlier or Older. While you’re at it, change that Previous link to Newer, or Later.

Your brain will thank you — and so will mine.