In the first entry of my LiveJournal, I commented rather rudely on the default link colours. Well, actually, what I wrote was “*heaves sigh / groan* Gawd this page is ugly. pink as the default colour for clicked links? How does that harmonize? *sigh*”
Someone named evan responded, commenting rather cryptically: “#8 (and later, #8 still).” (I’ve unpacked the links below.)
Here’s my reply:
Ya, thanks evan … I think Nielsen’s comments are very sane. Also, I think they are quite usually observed. But in any case, this can’t hurt … Read and heed:
Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox for May 1996: Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design
8. Non-Standard Link Colors – Links to pages that have not been seen by the user are blue; links to previously seen pages are purple or red. Don’t mess with these colors since the ability to understand what links have been followed is one of the few navigational aides that is standard in most web browsers. Consistency is key to teaching users what the link colors mean.
Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, May 2, 1999: “Top Ten Mistakes” Revisited Three Years Later
8. Non-Standard Link Colors – Continues to be a problem since users rely on the link colors to understand what parts of the site they have visited. I often see users bounce repeatedly among a small set of pages, not knowing that they are going back to the same page again and again. (Also, because non-standard link colors are unpleasantly frequent, users are now getting confused by any underlining of text that is not a link. Score: Severe
Cudna said it better myself. Actually, in retrospect, the pink was one of the things that moved me to swing this page in direction of a personal diary. Which, BTW, I happen to think is just fine.