On more than one occasion I’ve ranted about the design of gaming websites. Lack of screenshots, poor (or missing) navigation menus, and broken layouts make it a chore to gather information. Now I’m back with another disturbingly common annoyance: the lack of “next page” links.

Many of the sites I visit each day are in blog format, meaning news bits are posted fairly frequently and eventually fill up the front page. As I scroll down and read, I inevitably come to the end, at which point I would like to read the next newest posts. But are there pages to click on? Does an “older posts”, “next page”, or “keep reading” sit at the ready? No. Instead I have to scroll up, find some sort of archives link and load an entire month’s worth of posts, then find my place and keep going. And this is assuming the archives are even linked from the front page!

The moral of the story: if you want people to keep reading your blog, let them do so with minimal effort. Your blog layout can never be “perfect”, but at least give readers the ability to, you know, read.