Page numberling links

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

This is a really little detail but I'm not sure what to do with it. Here is my page:

http://www.housing.uwaterloo.ca/profiles/index.php

See the page number links? I'm not quite sure how to format them. Page numberling links are everywhere, and yet I can't decide what the best way to do them is. Several questions:

Do I need to indicate that these are pages: or something? Or are they fine without a label?
Should I use first/last and next/previous as text or would little arrows be intuitive enough (> and >> etc.)?
Can you find any examples of particularly effective page links?

(Oh, and yes, I know that page 3 is coming up blank right now. Some sort of miscalculation. Will fix that later)

FrankR's picture

He has: 45 posts

Joined: Oct 2006

You definitely need more visual cue than is currently there. I think what you have is far too subtle. Make the page number text bigger with bold on the current page. Look at how Yahoo does their paging. Another option would be to use a visual tab look like Gmail does with its Reply, Reply to All, Forward pages.

Frank

Author of SQL Converter for Excel, which is an Excel add-in for converting data to MySQL.

He has: 1,758 posts

Joined: Jul 2002

Personally, I really like the look of Digg's page links. Simple, but easy to recognise as well.

demonhale's picture

He has: 3,278 posts

Joined: May 2005

You need to add a bit of a visual cue, or arrange it like chapter pages in books, I cant access your URL right now, but I'll check it out later...

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

Digg is a good example - I like how they've greyed out the options that aren't avaialble. That's better than hiding them and having everything jump around from page to page.

I could also use some tasty generated content to put some arrows next to the next/previous. Mmmmmm.... eh, or maybe I'll just do that with background images. Then I could do a mouseover on it.

Thanks for the tips, guys Smiling

demonhale's picture

He has: 3,278 posts

Joined: May 2005

Had access to the url just a while, Nice colors btw. I have a wild idea, why don't you put reverse tabs on the page numbers, that way it will look unique and balanced with the page.

He has: 1,758 posts

Joined: Jul 2002

Check out FamFamFam for some really cool little icons. Really handy for interface stuff.

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

Oooh, that's an excellent icon set! Much larger than the others I've seen. I'll make sure to bookmark that for future projects.

FrankR's picture

He has: 45 posts

Joined: Oct 2006

I am a big fan of Sue Pichotta's icon sets at www.icons-icons.com. I have licenses for several of the sets and think they are well worth the modest price.

Author of SQL Converter for Excel, which is an Excel add-in for converting data to MySQL.

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

This is what I came up with for now:

http://www.housing.uwaterloo.ca/profiles/index.php

I might try to simplify those graphics or try something else later when I have more time. There are more important things to work on for now though!

He has: 1,758 posts

Joined: Jul 2002

Looks good Megan!

FrankR's picture

He has: 45 posts

Joined: Oct 2006

Looks good. However, one change I would make is the number of current page BOLD. As it is now, it is hard to tell which page I am on without paying close attention.

Frank

Author of SQL Converter for Excel, which is an Excel add-in for converting data to MySQL.

demonhale's picture

He has: 3,278 posts

Joined: May 2005

Nice Meg, I think frank is right, you need some kind of a "where you're at", so they'll now which page they are in...

Want to join the discussion? Create an account or log in if you already have one. Joining is fast, free and painless! We’ll even whisk you back here when you’ve finished.