There appears to be a growing trend in producing web sites which are effectively unreadable unless I play around with my browser settings.
Either the site uses text which is so tiny that I have to hit the bigger button a couple of times or is light grey (or even worse light blue) on a white background1. The site often looks a million dollars but really is difficult to read. It’s a real pity because the content of many such sites is excellent. If only I could read it.
Designers of sites like these sometimes provide alternative style sheets which can be used to make the site readable (so long as your browser supports such things). While this is better it does suggest that the designer already knows the site has readability problems. In which case, why did they bother? It’s a bit like selling a car with wheels which you have to fit yourself because they destroy the aesthetic beauty of the basic design. Madness.
Any day now someone will design a site which uses one point white text on a white background. Perhaps someone already has.
1 Here’s an example I’ve made up to show what I’m jabbering on about.
Posted 4 June 2004, 16:28 BST
