Many blogs are starting to use the “Older” button that points to the left instead of the traditional “Next” button that points to the right, for pagination. Some argue the former is more intuitive because a timeline moves from the left to right, which aligns with the way blog posts are also conceived. Is it actually the right behavior, though?
We are accustomed to expect the next page to come from the right, just as we would with books, magazines, photo albums, etc. The “Next” button is pervasive online on every major search engine, online retail store and news site as well. Hence, Next-ing has become a second nature behavior that visitors subconsciously look to execute to page through a website.
I am a big fan of Engadget.com, a popular tech and gadget blog. The blog’s homepage has more than 20 posts that are constantly replaced with new posts, leaving little chance for the need to go to the next page. Today, posts weren’t very interesting. I actually managed to browse to the bottom of the page and looked for the “Next” button. It was odd to see “Older Posts” instead, and because it was pointing to the left, the thought process to retrain behavior to click left portion of the pagination conflicted with the concept that we browse in forward(right) and backward(left) motion. Flickr’s implementation of the merged concepts is a better solution, if “Older” must be used. The orientation was maintained, as expected.
Most of us don’t read anything until something grabs our attention. With only 3-second attention span, we let our second nature do the browsing while our eyes focus on capturing items that interest us. Our natural tendency to hit “Next” will continue to live with us, as it has been since our childhood. The user experience should align with the expected behavior. Don’t make me think—use “Next” for pagination.
`O’mar~