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Unreadable for the over 40 crowd on mobile.

intrasight 10y ago
Everything is unreadable for the over 40 crowd on mobile. That's why I use Firefox reader view on mobile. On desktop it's as simple as ctrl-shift-+
- CydeWeys 10y ago
  No, this site is especially bad. 50% of the total screen real estate is taken up by useless margins that shouldn't be there on mobile, and the text size is way too small. Most sites do a way better job of rendering on mobile.
  - intrasight 10y ago
    Yes, that site was poorly designed. Unfortunately is true of most sites to varying degrees IMHO. I browse in desktop mode on mobile (because I don't want the sites to treat me differently) and then use reader mode to read (because then I get a consistent experience).
- raarts 10y ago
  Use Reader mode if you're on iOS.
CydeWeys 10y ago
Kind of ironic given the content of the linked post. He wants everyone to do things that are maximally convenient for him, but he doesn't even have a simple responsive layout on his site to make the margins taking up half the screen real estate disappear so that it's convenient for anyone on mobile to read his stuff.
- phkahler 10y ago
  That's even more funny since HTML will automatically fill the width of the page. He goes out of his way to create margins to help people with wide screens but doesn't consider the effect on small screens. I just remember in the 90's when the web started taking off and all these designers and people used to regular print publications came along and had to control the page layout when the whole point was to let the layout change to fit the users needs. Margins are not necessary at all - the user can adjust the width of their browser window to alter the width of a line of text, but that's not fashionable these days.
  - byuu 10y ago
    A max-width: 80em; is a nice readability enhancement so that users don't have to resize their browser windows after each tab change. The problem is they don't use max-width, they end up using width instead. And as you said, the forced margins are also a problem here. Also, to any designers reading this: please don't use text justification, either. I know it looks prettier as abstract art, but it does nothing but harm readability of your actual content.
    - phkahler 10y ago
      So would using max-width along with center be appropriate? That seems like it would be very accommodating.
      - byuu 10y ago
        It certainly should be, yes. Would have rendered almost identically on the desktop, but rendered properly on cell phones.
makapuf 10y ago
Who don't use Firefox and its perfectly usable reader mode.
byuu 10y ago
And as usual, all for nothing. The site makes 43 separate GET requests and transfers 562KiB of data over the span of 8.25 seconds to load ... wait for it ... 3.7KiB of text. And the site is solid black text on a solid white background. This article would have literally been better as a link to a .txt file on a static file server. The modern web is really such a disaster. Although I would have then missed out on this gem of a comment ( www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=3203#comment-1733204 ) -- and I do mean that sincerely, no sarcasm. Seriously, I can't stand places that make you call in advance either :P
- db48x 10y ago
  Ah, MathJax
empath75 10y ago
Just double tap to zoom?
jasonlotito 10y ago
Just increase the text size. It becomes easily readable. The font size is larger than text here on HN.
petters 10y ago
Funny, I did not even notice that it is unreadable on mobile. I almost subconsciously pinched to get rid of the margins the first thing I did. This problem is extremely prevalent.

Everything is unreadable for the over 40 crowd on mobile. That's why I use Firefox reader view on mobile. On desktop it's as simple as ctrl-shift-+

CydeWeys 10y ago
No, this site is especially bad. 50% of the total screen real estate is taken up by useless margins that shouldn't be there on mobile, and the text size is way too small. Most sites do a way better job of rendering on mobile.
- intrasight 10y ago
  Yes, that site was poorly designed. Unfortunately is true of most sites to varying degrees IMHO. I browse in desktop mode on mobile (because I don't want the sites to treat me differently) and then use reader mode to read (because then I get a consistent experience).
raarts 10y ago
Use Reader mode if you're on iOS.

CydeWeys 10y ago

Kind of ironic given the content of the linked post. He wants everyone to do things that are maximally convenient for him, but he doesn't even have a simple responsive layout on his site to make the margins taking up half the screen real estate disappear so that it's convenient for anyone on mobile to read his stuff.

phkahler 10y ago
That's even more funny since HTML will automatically fill the width of the page. He goes out of his way to create margins to help people with wide screens but doesn't consider the effect on small screens. I just remember in the 90's when the web started taking off and all these designers and people used to regular print publications came along and had to control the page layout when the whole point was to let the layout change to fit the users needs. Margins are not necessary at all - the user can adjust the width of their browser window to alter the width of a line of text, but that's not fashionable these days.
- byuu 10y ago
  A max-width: 80em; is a nice readability enhancement so that users don't have to resize their browser windows after each tab change. The problem is they don't use max-width, they end up using width instead. And as you said, the forced margins are also a problem here. Also, to any designers reading this: please don't use text justification, either. I know it looks prettier as abstract art, but it does nothing but harm readability of your actual content.
  - phkahler 10y ago
    So would using max-width along with center be appropriate? That seems like it would be very accommodating.
    - byuu 10y ago
      It certainly should be, yes. Would have rendered almost identically on the desktop, but rendered properly on cell phones.

makapuf 10y ago

Who don't use Firefox and its perfectly usable reader mode.

byuu 10y ago

And as usual, all for nothing. The site makes 43 separate GET requests and transfers 562KiB of data over the span of 8.25 seconds to load ... wait for it ... 3.7KiB of text. And the site is solid black text on a solid white background. This article would have literally been better as a link to a .txt file on a static file server. The modern web is really such a disaster. Although I would have then missed out on this gem of a comment ( www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=3203#comment-1733204 ) -- and I do mean that sincerely, no sarcasm. Seriously, I can't stand places that make you call in advance either :P

db48x 10y ago
Ah, MathJax

empath75 10y ago

Just double tap to zoom?

jasonlotito 10y ago

Just increase the text size. It becomes easily readable. The font size is larger than text here on HN.

petters 10y ago

Funny, I did not even notice that it is unreadable on mobile. I almost subconsciously pinched to get rid of the margins the first thing I did. This problem is extremely prevalent.