Friday, April 29, 2005

"Eight Things You Can Do Now to Improve On-Screen Readability"

Do you agree with this article? I don't -- especially the part about creating and embedding a custom font.

I think it's a good thing readers have control over how information is displayed on their computers. I once had a colleague with low vision, and for him, it was easiest to read content online if he had the background set to a dark color -- usually purple -- with the type in white or yellow.

For a designer, "user-centered" means checking aspects of your ego at the door. (It does for content folks too, just in different ways, but we'll tackle that in another post someday.)

Comments welcome....

1 comment:

Simon said...

I kinda sorta agree with you Hilary.

From a design and branding point of view, it's scary to just let people view your precious content however the heck they want.

But of course, if your brand is anything worthwhile, your audience will feel a sense of ownership that doesn't depend on strict brand control guidelines.

I think the usable web is challenging the way brands have communicated themselves over the years. Things like Google AdWords have make marketers think about what their brand is about - and it's not the logo, not even the look and feel so much as the feeling, the essence of what the product or service is about. And - of course - it all starts with words.