6 ms·

Was curious to read this, but the font is appalling. Hurts to read this on my phone without glasses.

mrob 8y ago
There's no actual font. It's just vector graphics in SVGs. No alt text either. This is one of the least accessible web pages I've seen. EDIT: Fixed by the author. Thanks for the accessibility update.
- bestest 8y ago
  it's so terrible it's amazing.
- justanothersys 8y ago
  I wanted to handwrite the letter to fit the content. I've also provided a text transcript (https://ditbvg.justanothersystem.org/ditbvg-transcript.txt https://ditbvg.justanothersystem.org/ditbvg-transcript.txt) and audio recording (https://ditbvg.justanothersystem.org/drawing-is-the-best-videogame.mp3 https://ditbvg.justanothersystem.org/drawing-is-the-best-vid...) for accessibility. I updated the <img> tags with alt attributes for you which should work better if you are using a text-mode browser. Thanks for reminding me. :) It should be live eventually but in the meantime you can use this link: https://ditbvg.justanothersystem.org https://ditbvg.justanothersystem.org
  - pluma 8y ago
    That you provide the transcript and audio recording is amazing. I think the descriptions of the illustrations could be improved a bit though: they make sense if you've seen the images but they don't really provide the same information. As an example: > [ Illustration of what I thought Zelda was versus what Zelda really was. ] This is a map of the game world with a distinctly visible 16x16 grid and a highlighted 4x5 region. That "what Zelda really was" was more than 12 times larger than "what [you] thought Zelda was" is lost in that description. But that information seems to be what that picture is intended to illustrate. The transcript reads more like a draft: "this is where that picture goes". Instead it's more helpful to think about why you want to put that picture in particular there, what a normal sighted person can see in it that that you want to emphasize. For example: > In-game rendering of the Zelda world map laid out on a 16 by 16 tile grid. A small village in the West wedged between a forest to the North and a mountain range to the South, lakes and rivers throughout the East. The village I thought encompassed the entire playable area barely covers a tenth of the map. (or something like that, I don't words good)
    - justanothersys 8y ago
      Thanks for the advice. I think the Zelda diagram could have easily been more abstract, but when finding a nice diagram I decided on the world map. I actually wrote the descriptions before I made the pictures and perhaps it's better to go in the other direction for accessibility in the future.
skilled 8y ago
It's definitely an out there design. In fact, I found it hard to fix (read: it's SVG) the font even from a desktop browser. And the audio attached at the top is a little too cringe for me. Images seem to be the only thing looking great on this page.
- bestest 8y ago
  you can't fix the font: view-source:https://tci-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/ditbvg/text-1.svg https://tci-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/ditbvg/text-1.svg
  - skilled 8y ago
    That's what I meant. ;-)
loeber 8y ago
Trying to read this on the desktop. Even worse. Bummer, because it seemed like an interesting story. Had to give up after two paragraphs.
gnarbarian 8y ago
You can listen to it too.
- pluma 8y ago
  This assumes you either have headphones or you're in a place where listening to it on speakers doesn't disturb anyone. And of course that you can hear and follow the narration. Luckily there's a transcript. EDIT: FWIW something (presumably the subtle color rotation going on throughout the entire page) seems to cause my laptop's fan to spin up as soon as I'm on that page.
avian 8y ago
I wonder, do you go to an art gallery and complain that paintings don't adhere to the Material design? This is a work of art. It's supposed to be playful and colorful and a bit crude. The message would be quite different if it would be written in a dark-grey Helvetica on light-gray background, don't you think?
- zapzupnz 8y ago
  > The message would be quite different if it would be written in a dark-grey Helvetica on light-grey background, don’t you think? Yes, it would be quite different. It’s be readable, to start with. Also, GP was complaining about the font — which is very decidedly /not/ made for legibility. You’ve added colours to the hypothetical, slightly changing the argument. Also, what’s with the crack about Material design? That has nothing to do with anything, least of all the well-studied and thoroughly understood principles of text legibility. No, people don’t go into art galleries and complain about them not adhering to user interface design principles because that’s absurd and irrelevant. This is text intended for people to read, not a drawing. Your argument is a weird straw man one.
  - avian 8y ago
    The point I was trying to make was that the parent comment completely missed the point. Is the hand-written text really intended for people to read? Why is there a voice-over then? Or a link to a plain-ASCII version of the content in the bottom? It should be obvious that the form was a deliberate choice on part of the author, not some kind of web design incompetence. If nothing else, the color shifting backgrounds, blinking dots and animated swirls should give it away. You don't need to like it, but commenting on the font choice is just as silly as judging paintings by human-interface guidelines. Speaking more generally, I was just being annoyed with this type of comments. See any post that links to a website that doesn't adhere to whatever the latest web design fad is and there is a good chance that a large part of the discussion will be about how the font or colors make people's eyes bleed. As much as HN is able to foster intelligent discussion, this aspect of it is pretty annoying.
    - 8y ago

mrob 8y ago

There's no actual font. It's just vector graphics in SVGs. No alt text either. This is one of the least accessible web pages I've seen. EDIT: Fixed by the author. Thanks for the accessibility update.

bestest 8y ago
it's so terrible it's amazing.
justanothersys 8y ago
I wanted to handwrite the letter to fit the content. I've also provided a text transcript (https://ditbvg.justanothersystem.org/ditbvg-transcript.txt https://ditbvg.justanothersystem.org/ditbvg-transcript.txt) and audio recording (https://ditbvg.justanothersystem.org/drawing-is-the-best-videogame.mp3 https://ditbvg.justanothersystem.org/drawing-is-the-best-vid...) for accessibility. I updated the <img> tags with alt attributes for you which should work better if you are using a text-mode browser. Thanks for reminding me. :) It should be live eventually but in the meantime you can use this link: https://ditbvg.justanothersystem.org https://ditbvg.justanothersystem.org
- pluma 8y ago
  That you provide the transcript and audio recording is amazing. I think the descriptions of the illustrations could be improved a bit though: they make sense if you've seen the images but they don't really provide the same information. As an example: > [ Illustration of what I thought Zelda was versus what Zelda really was. ] This is a map of the game world with a distinctly visible 16x16 grid and a highlighted 4x5 region. That "what Zelda really was" was more than 12 times larger than "what [you] thought Zelda was" is lost in that description. But that information seems to be what that picture is intended to illustrate. The transcript reads more like a draft: "this is where that picture goes". Instead it's more helpful to think about why you want to put that picture in particular there, what a normal sighted person can see in it that that you want to emphasize. For example: > In-game rendering of the Zelda world map laid out on a 16 by 16 tile grid. A small village in the West wedged between a forest to the North and a mountain range to the South, lakes and rivers throughout the East. The village I thought encompassed the entire playable area barely covers a tenth of the map. (or something like that, I don't words good)
  - justanothersys 8y ago
    Thanks for the advice. I think the Zelda diagram could have easily been more abstract, but when finding a nice diagram I decided on the world map. I actually wrote the descriptions before I made the pictures and perhaps it's better to go in the other direction for accessibility in the future.

skilled 8y ago

It's definitely an out there design. In fact, I found it hard to fix (read: it's SVG) the font even from a desktop browser. And the audio attached at the top is a little too cringe for me. Images seem to be the only thing looking great on this page.

bestest 8y ago
you can't fix the font: view-source:https://tci-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/ditbvg/text-1.svg https://tci-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/ditbvg/text-1.svg
- skilled 8y ago
  That's what I meant. ;-)

loeber 8y ago

Trying to read this on the desktop. Even worse. Bummer, because it seemed like an interesting story. Had to give up after two paragraphs.

gnarbarian 8y ago

You can listen to it too.

pluma 8y ago
This assumes you either have headphones or you're in a place where listening to it on speakers doesn't disturb anyone. And of course that you can hear and follow the narration. Luckily there's a transcript. EDIT: FWIW something (presumably the subtle color rotation going on throughout the entire page) seems to cause my laptop's fan to spin up as soon as I'm on that page.

avian 8y ago

I wonder, do you go to an art gallery and complain that paintings don't adhere to the Material design? This is a work of art. It's supposed to be playful and colorful and a bit crude. The message would be quite different if it would be written in a dark-grey Helvetica on light-gray background, don't you think?

zapzupnz 8y ago
> The message would be quite different if it would be written in a dark-grey Helvetica on light-grey background, don’t you think? Yes, it would be quite different. It’s be readable, to start with. Also, GP was complaining about the font — which is very decidedly /not/ made for legibility. You’ve added colours to the hypothetical, slightly changing the argument. Also, what’s with the crack about Material design? That has nothing to do with anything, least of all the well-studied and thoroughly understood principles of text legibility. No, people don’t go into art galleries and complain about them not adhering to user interface design principles because that’s absurd and irrelevant. This is text intended for people to read, not a drawing. Your argument is a weird straw man one.
- avian 8y ago
  The point I was trying to make was that the parent comment completely missed the point. Is the hand-written text really intended for people to read? Why is there a voice-over then? Or a link to a plain-ASCII version of the content in the bottom? It should be obvious that the form was a deliberate choice on part of the author, not some kind of web design incompetence. If nothing else, the color shifting backgrounds, blinking dots and animated swirls should give it away. You don't need to like it, but commenting on the font choice is just as silly as judging paintings by human-interface guidelines. Speaking more generally, I was just being annoyed with this type of comments. See any post that links to a website that doesn't adhere to whatever the latest web design fad is and there is a good chance that a large part of the discussion will be about how the font or colors make people's eyes bleed. As much as HN is able to foster intelligent discussion, this aspect of it is pretty annoying.
  - 8y ago