mich...@mlpdesign.com said on Fri, 11 Aug 2023 18:33:03 -0500 >Hi all > >Ok, here's is update2 to the design. Note: I still need to break this >down into individual patches for review but wanted to get feedback on >the aesthetics first. > >v1: https://www.openbsd.design/cvs/www/index.html > >v2: https://www.openbsd.design/cvs/www2/index.html > >What's Change in v2: >==================== > >Based on feedback either directly or on the mailing list, I did the >following: > >*** Note: I have only focused on the Light Theme for this version *** > >- Removed puffy from footer
I see no need to remove Puffy. Besides being a symbol of OpenBSD, it tells the reader the lower bound of the web page. I'd suggest you put it back. > >- Removed all web fonts (just system defaults now) This is excellent, because it lets all users instantly see it at the size they picked for their browser defaults. So it serves both the person with 20/10 vision and 20/60 corrected vision. And because a fontface isn't named, it's guaranteed to be the Sans font the user is accustomed to on their web browser. > >- Increased the line-height In my opinion the line height in both versions is excellent. In my opinion, the inter-paragraph vertical distance should be increased slightly in V2. > >- Reverted most (but not all) colors back to either > browser defaults or what's on openbsd.org > >- Increased font-size (and specified it in 'em') For normal text, why specify font size at all? I reserve font size only for special things like headers or special <div></div>s. > >- Removed the max-width of 840px (now full-width) I think you should put back the max-width, but express it in em. I work a lot with the LyX project mailing list, where we use LyX to create documents that are both readable and aesthetic. A rule of thumb I learned there is that each line should be roughly 70 characters long. I find that when lines have too many characters, I lose my place while going all the way back left and one down. > >- Removed/reverted the black OpenBSD logo back to what's on openbsd.org > > >For what it's worth, here's my thoughts about the new design: >============================================================ > >Polish: My main concern is that it's not as polished as v1, and that >could >determine future OpenBSD users. I agree the new one isn't as polished, although I'm not sure this would determine future OpenBSD users, as the candidate for OpenBSD is going to be pretty geeky. > >Readability: Readability is significantly worse in v2 vs. v1 Agreed, but this can mostly be reverted by bringing back the maximum line width. Your original font was crisper than my browser default, but as I mentioned, better sacrifice a little beauty to make it universally useful. > >- Line Length, by making the line length unlimited in width, it makes >it extremely difficult to read body text. Reason being, your eye needs >to track to the next line. The rule of thumb is, the longer the line >length the bigger the line-heigh needs to be. When the line length can >be unlimited long, it's difficult to set an appropriate line-heigh >which hurts >readability. I agree wholeheartedly. When encountering pages with too-long lines, I have to skinny up my browser window to skinny up line length, and then expand the browser again when looking at another tab. By the way, I think that even in V1 your lines were too long. The only time I recommend against maximum line length is on pages whose content contains a lot of code. You can't wrap code the way you can other things, so you need as much width as you can get. Somebody could argue that you're wasting a lot of space on the sides of your text. My answer would be "so what?" Mice have scroll wheels now, and with shorter lines it's easier to keep your place when scrolling than with ginormous lines. > >- Colors, the more colors that are present, the more distracting a >website >will become. That's ok if it's a marketing website, but a site that's >primarily >documentation - you want to reduce the color palette down to only 2 (3 >max) >colors. This is why technical manuals are mostly created in grayscale, Please prefer #000000 text on #ffffff background. Those of us with poor visual acuity need all the help we can get. Yes, I know, I know, some folks get headaches with pure black on pure white. You can't please all the people all the time, but with #000000 on #ffffff at least you know your work is *readable* by the most people possible. And let me tell you, *I* get headaches trying to read midgray on lighter gray. >because color very much distracts the eyes and makes it more difficult >to >read body text. I feel like v2 color palette, which are peoples ask to >revert >to the previous color palette causes that. (And I still haven't revert >to >all of the openbsd.org colors) I could argue either side of the "multiple colors are more distracting than helpful" topic. By the way, in the V2 left side link list, topic headings "OpenBSD Resources" and "Supporting OpenBSD" come out of the gray and into the white. This is an absolute no-no, requiring an increase in the width of the div for the left hand link list. SteveT Steve Litt Autumn 2022 featured book: Thriving in Tough Times http://www.troubleshooters.com/bookstore/thrive.htm
