Steve said:
Clearly. Or maybe you're not reading what I wrote:
"Apart from the home page"
Ah, sorry about that. Still, I think you'll agree that the home page is
pretty damned important! It's the only page with any slight bit of layout,
and it uses tables for that - not good.
So what is it about the text on useit.com that makes the text less
readable than the text on any other web site?
Do you find my site at
http://www.sfsfw.net/index.php equally hard to
read? It also doesn't specify a font size, uses the full width of the
window and uses black text on white. So is it equally hard to read?
I can read your site just fine - you have a border, and a decent amount of
padding on the body. You use line breaks, pictures and headings to break up
the text, and this means that you're not hitting the edges of my screen with
every line. It's a good amount of readable. I expect useit.com would be
fine for me if it would reduce to 85% or so.
People viewing in 1600x1200 with maximised browsers have chosen that
resolution for a reason, but they may have to realise that they are a
minority and that lines of text on the web will be smaller. However, I'm
browsing at 1024x768, so I'm in the majority - the site should look good for
me at the very least.
Also, I dislike the colours on the front page of useit.com - they look
washed out and it reminds me of companies who try to make business papers
interesting by adding colour, and end up using washed-out saturation levels
and whacking text all over the place. Even putting a small black border
around the yellow and blue table cells would be a good first step - possibly
even a gap between the two cells, too. This would break it up and be more
friendly at first glance.
Most people find black on white acceptable to read, though black on
off-white is widely considered to be easier on the eye.
When I build sites, I make the body background #eee by default, then I work
from there.
Exactly my point.
You should have already picked a window size that gives you sensible
line lengths.
For every other site that I visit, it does.
But instead you have picked a window size that makes it difficult for
you to read the text.
Only on Jakob's site - does that not indicate a problem that is not to do
with my settings? I shouldn't have to resize my browser just to view his
site (it really really is just his site)!
If your preferred line lengths are 800px long and mine are 1200px long
and John Smith's are 400px long, what size should Nielsen force his
site to be?
He shouldn't force anything - he should add a bit of border, a bit of
padding and less lame colours.
For most people, using a user stylesheet is not a requirement to view
any site. It's a convenience to make sites conform to _your_ viewing
preferences.
I don't need a user stylesheet for any other site.
If a user _needs_ to use a user stylesheet (for example to compensate
for some disability) then they will use a browser that allows them to
do so. And if an employer prevents them then that employer may find
themselves at the wrong end of discrimination legislation.
That's a whole lotta ifs and maybes. I'm not saying it can't be done ever,
but most companies aren't going to change their server software just so
their employees can surf the web more comfortably.
Categorising the articles would be a good idea but that goes beyond
simple design issues. The related links given at the foot of most
articles go part of the way there.
Now that is something that we can lambast Nielsen for, failing to
forsee that his site might grow into a large resource and failing to
orgnaise the content with that growth in mind is a classic usability
gotcha.
It wouldn't be that hard to change it - just a simple database.
TABLE categories:
categoryID (int)
categoryName (string)
TABLE articles:
articleID (int)
categoryID (int)
articleName (string)
articleLocation (url as string)
We then set up an SSI/PHP/ASP/whatever menu div displaying the results of a
"select * from categories" query, each option linking to a page which
displays the results of a "select articleName, articleLocation from articles
where categoryID='x'" query.
A few hours of data entry later, and we're done, all set up for the future.