You are spot-on in the inconsistencies you point out. But these same inconsistencies will be found in the current design—the one you’re reading right now. This design has been up since 2004, and no one has reported being confused as to what’s a link and what’s not.

Lack of reports doesn’t mean no one was ever confused, but if confusion over what is and isn’t a link was a real problem on this design, I surely would have heard about it over the past five years.

The fact that I haven’t heard a peep suggests it’s not a major problem for the people who read this site.

Whether this exact same system regarding what gets underlined and what doesn’t will work as well in the orange design remains to be seen.

Similar inconsistencies—the kind I would never have stood for five years ago—may be found in the designs of A List Apart and AIGA, and they don’t seem to bother anyone there, either.

I’m thinking—as your own line of discussion suggests—that absolute consistency is a requirement when designing a mass market site such as Yahoo, but the rules may be relaxed a bit when designing for a much smaller and more sophisticated audience.

Then again, you were confused about the ALA subhead links. I’m thinking perhaps in the orange design I should avoid making subheads linkable, period. (Keep the links in the body, where they’ll be underlined by default.)

Thanks for the honest and logical feedback.

To be fair, when I’ve designed websites I’ve also come up with reasons to break consistency because design-wise it didn’t look good to me. Plus, it’s your personal site and one mostly visited by web designers so they don’t need as much help figuring things out as the average person. It’s all good (even if the orange and black makes me flash back to unpleasant days working on a version of the Geek Squad website, lol). You’re brave to open this up for discussion!

I get the feeling that there’s a specific, possibly illogical and/or historical meaning attached to the “Previous Reports” button.

All links are orange, but not everyone can see color the same way, so I use underlining for body links, to help people with certain kinds of colorblindness (and to make the “linkness” more obvious even for non-colorblind folks).

I don’t use underlines on the subheads because it would be hideous; I don’t use them in the sidebar because visual context makes it unnecessary. Make sense?

I’m not a fan of the crazy orange background

@Chris Wallace, now that I have a style switcher in place and you know where it is, why do you need to complain about the orange? You’ll never see the orange. You’ll always see the off-white. The footer switch sets a cookie to remember your preference.

might you be able to offer a background switch button (set cookie to remember selection for future visits) at the top of the page instead of the tiny little footer line that will be missed by 99% of the users who have trouble with the orange?

I buried the switch because the orange is part of the brand and the design. Sticking the style switch at the top of the page would call attention to it and make it appear that the two designs are equivalent in value. They’re not. Sticking the switch at the top would encourage people to flick it, and many would choose off-white simply because it’s more familiar to them. I’d rather that most people experience the page through the intended design.

One suggestion though, might you be able to offer a background switch button (set cookie to remember selection for future visits) at the top of the page instead of the tiny little footer line that will be missed by 99% of the users who have trouble with the orange?

No bigee, it’s one of those things I have to watch with myself so I’ve developed a little bit of a naggy neurosis when it comes to corners.