Descending Date Pagination

[gothwalk]

Originally published at Now Is A Long Time Too. You can comment here or there.

Something that I see over and over again is a confusion regarding descending date pagination. That is, when you have the newest item in some particular context at the top of the page, with older ones further down. Like most blogs, for instance. But when you get to the bottom, of, say, your last 20 posts, and you want to give a link to another set, the 20 you posted before them. Are they “next”, as in next page? Or “previous”, as in previously posted? You can argue either, and I’ve seen both in steady use. Try as I might, none of the design principles I’m aware of can guide me on this one. Anyone got any solid ideas on which is better?

Comments

[loupblanc.livejournal.com]

If I paginate by packs of 20, as in your example, I'll use "Previous" and "Next" if the ordering is alphabetical or by id or something. If it's chronological, I'll try to keep it more contextual so instead of "previous" I'll use "earlier entries"/"later entries" for a blog, "previous month"/"next month" if ordered by month, say.

Of course you need to be able to recognise the context and code the appropriate text in. I'm not sure there's really a universal way of putting it.

[mollydot.livejournal.com]

Yep, I second earlier and later.