OT: Why Web Pages Get Sh*tty to Read

And this is *news*?? :>

I think you have to lump web sites into two loose categories: commercial and non-commercial. The latter can be subdivided into "fluff" (e.g., "How I spent my summer vacation") and informative.

The latter *tend* to be the ones I look for. The commercial sites are easy for me to spot -- lots of graphic content -- and largely ineffective for me (I browse with pictures, flash, etc. disabled). Too bad search engines don't *really* act in the user's best interest and *score* the site! (commercial, etc.)

Even something as simple as counting images, '$' characters, etc.

It might be to some.

I like to navigate commercial web sites by looking at graphics because the English is too watered down by SEO. iows... I try not to read. The reading value is made deficient by redundancy and tautology used to increase ranking. Pictures become more effective to me when the English is made less effective by SEO. 'A picture is worth a thousand words.' My spin on that is.. 'A picture is worth a million words when SEO is applied.'

Check out

Anyone that puts red text on black should be pick-em-up-hauled ;-) ...Jim Thompson

Looks ok.. Looks a bit better on my high end monitor. Site seems functional.

"Jim Thompson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

That's not hard to read, years ago I saw a joke site that had a silver/grey diamond plate background with white letters. Very difficult to read, I had to copy and paste it in to Word to read it. I sent an email to the author, telling him how hard it was to read and he should change it. He sent me the page in an email, I sent it back to him telling him I didn't need it, I already figured out how to make it readable. Don't know if he found that humorous. Mike

ing

blah

=A0 =A0 ...Jim Thompson

=A0 =A0| =A0 =A0mens =A0 =A0 |

=A0 | =A0 =A0 et =A0 =A0 =A0|

=A0|

=A0 =A0 =A0 |

quoted text -

What about those commercials on TV? The ones with mouse print.

I saw one the other day that was white text (approaching a 2-point cartoon-type font) on a pale blue sky with light grayish-white clouds. Almost zero contrast. I am not kidding!!

Plus it was on-screen for all of 2 seconds and contained probably a half-dozen sentences. Even if you could see it, you couldn't speed-read it.

I try to make it a point to NEVER purchase stuff that's advertised in this way. Hopefully, someday, vendors will get the message and STOP doing that crap. But's that usually pretty difficult with auto dealers - who seem to be the worst offenders.

-mpm

I think blue on orange is the deal breaker (if I have remembered that correctly). Your eyes focus on the two colors at different depths so the image "vibrates".

lol :)

It's funny to watch the discomfort it causes *others*.

But, *very* disturbing when *you* are the one trying to read (or even *view*!) stuff like this. If forced to do so for any amount of time (i.e., even a few minutes) you will probably end up with a mild headache or feeling of nausea.

I'm surprised MS doesn't use this color scheme for their warranty notices...

I'm wondering if there's an evolutionary explaination.

All I get is "Click here to download plugin"

Goddamn Flash.

I hope the food is better than the website :-)

-- "Electricity is of two kinds, positive and negative. The difference is, I presume, that one comes a little more expensive, but is more durable; the other is a cheaper thing, but the moths get into it." (Stephen Leacock)

Fred Abse wibbled on Monday 08 March 2010 09:44

Anyone who does a whole "website" in flash is missing the point and should be hung, drawn and quartered by Tim Berners-Lee and the parts displayed as a warning to others.

Amen. Re colors, so far I've never needed the contents of a particular site so badly that I have to force myself to bear the torture of reading tiny red fonts on black, dark grey on black, white on light grey, etc. When I encounter such web pages, I close them in silent protest and look for alternative sources. I also feel that anyone who puts up such a website is probably not a reliable source of information anyway.

Fabulous.

I was looking at the website for the first time, because I wanted take-out... the wife is immobile at the moment due to her nasty fall :-(

There's no way to order take-out on the page :-(

So I went in, ordered take-out, and gave 'em hell for no such provision on the website AND the red-on-black text :-) ...Jim Thompson

Reminds me of the story about Robert Watson-Watt being caught by speed radar (In Canada, IIRC):

"If I'd known what it was going to be used for, I wouldn't have invented it".

Sites prepared for visually impaired readers often use white on black or other schemes that *seem* hostile to a "normal viewer".

Website music, a BIG nono.

message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

My favorite music got messed up by the website music. Website music is rude. Perhaps call it 'audio rape'.

message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

I know. But, at least, you do have to click "play".

I sent their headquarters a scathing thumbs down :-) ...Jim Thompson