(no subject)
If you're getting a migraine from LJ's new comment style, here's why. Or even a regular headache, or eyestrain, or seizures, etc.
This explains a lot of why we gravitated to a style with a relatively narrow column of text down the middle and a minimum of white space. (We don't get migraines as far as we know, but have pretty significant problems with eyestrain and light sensitivity. I think part of our problem is that our brain isn't able to block out areas that don't contain any useful information, to the extent that most people's can.) We have our journal set to view everyone else's comment pages in our style, which was one of the ones not affected by the changes, so we had to log out to see the hideous new commenting style. And the huge-ass Arial font going all the way across the white space definitely gave us problems. I think it would be completely unreadable for us without our color filter program.
...though, it also makes me wonder-- I thought graphic designers were supposed to at least learn the basics of how vision works and what the human eye tends to be drawn to, as far as reading/images/etc. At least, everyone we met who studied graphic design had had to learn something about that at one point. And this design is just... not even good for non-disabled people, from the looks of it, by that measure. Even if not everyone dislikes it, it's still not exactly optimized for legibility and attractiveness. (And the incompatibility with screenreaders is just... ten pounds of fail in a five-pound bucket.)
~r.
This explains a lot of why we gravitated to a style with a relatively narrow column of text down the middle and a minimum of white space. (We don't get migraines as far as we know, but have pretty significant problems with eyestrain and light sensitivity. I think part of our problem is that our brain isn't able to block out areas that don't contain any useful information, to the extent that most people's can.) We have our journal set to view everyone else's comment pages in our style, which was one of the ones not affected by the changes, so we had to log out to see the hideous new commenting style. And the huge-ass Arial font going all the way across the white space definitely gave us problems. I think it would be completely unreadable for us without our color filter program.
...though, it also makes me wonder-- I thought graphic designers were supposed to at least learn the basics of how vision works and what the human eye tends to be drawn to, as far as reading/images/etc. At least, everyone we met who studied graphic design had had to learn something about that at one point. And this design is just... not even good for non-disabled people, from the looks of it, by that measure. Even if not everyone dislikes it, it's still not exactly optimized for legibility and attractiveness. (And the incompatibility with screenreaders is just... ten pounds of fail in a five-pound bucket.)
~r.