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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 ther

by 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.

falcolas 8y ago
Font, color, and size choices don’t just impact the meaning and the tone of the text, they can cause the text to become unreadable at worst, and painful in many cases (eye strain). I was lucky to have an 11” display that I was reading this on - I could enlarge the text to a point where it was readily legible. It was a good text, but the experience wasn’t enhanced by the fonts used. If I had a phone, I would not have been able to read it, even with reading glasses. The voice version of it was so slow and monotone I gave up on it after realizing the body of the text would be spoken in the same cadence. TL;DR: Your stylistic choices can limit who can even view your text.
- icebraining 8y ago
  > Your stylistic choices can limit who can even view your text. And sometimes that's okay.
  - falcolas 8y ago
    Honest question - what author would knowingly limit the scope of their readers not only to those interested in the topics they're writing about, but those who can read moderately legible handwriting on a busy background? From getting their point across, building an audience, and making a living, it makes no practical sense. Even the OP came out with transcripts and improved accessibility in the long run - but you have to dig in the HN threads for those. How many potential valuable followers and opinions were lost in that time?
    - CptFribble 8y ago
      > making a living > valuable followers Gaining followers and financial success is usually a sideshow to the artist's message. Compromising your message for more money is like the actual definition of selling out.
      - falcolas 8y ago
        > Gaining followers and financial success is usually a sideshow to the artist's message. There's a subreddit devoted to the rather painful ridicule of this (unfortunately common) belief. It's /r/ChoosingBeggers and it has lots of tales of people who try and exploit artists for "the exposure" and accuse them of "selling out" when they demand payment for their work. I know of no professional-grade artists who are happy to give away all their art. Even face painters at fairs charge for their moderately simplistic work.
        CptFribble 8y ago
        I'm not suggesting artists must give away their art or be sellouts, I'm just saying that not all messages must necessarily be optimized for maximum exposure. Artists shouldn't give away their art for free, but audiences shouldn't expect all art to be easily digestible either.
    - justanothersys 8y ago
      It was intentional. To quote the article: "The Zelda cartridge I played contains 500 kilobytes of information. The game is how you are forced to browse that information."
zapzupnz 8y ago
> See any post that links to a website that doesn't adhere to whatever the latest web design fad is Legibility is not a fad, and it certainly isn't limited to web design. Legibility has been studied for decades, font foundries have worked to perfect the balance between style and legibility, and the principles are well-understood. This goes back to your crack at Material design, something wholly irrelevant to what is being talked about by me and GP. Design frameworks are not the arbiters of the legibility of text. That you think legibility is an optional extra for text is simply bizarre. Sure, it mightn't be the author's number one priority, but that doesn't put it out of criticism's way. Legibility is not simply a passing trend.

by avian 8y ago

falcolas 8y ago

Font, color, and size choices don’t just impact the meaning and the tone of the text, they can cause the text to become unreadable at worst, and painful in many cases (eye strain). I was lucky to have an 11” display that I was reading this on - I could enlarge the text to a point where it was readily legible. It was a good text, but the experience wasn’t enhanced by the fonts used. If I had a phone, I would not have been able to read it, even with reading glasses. The voice version of it was so slow and monotone I gave up on it after realizing the body of the text would be spoken in the same cadence. TL;DR: Your stylistic choices can limit who can even view your text.

icebraining 8y ago
> Your stylistic choices can limit who can even view your text. And sometimes that's okay.
- falcolas 8y ago
  Honest question - what author would knowingly limit the scope of their readers not only to those interested in the topics they're writing about, but those who can read moderately legible handwriting on a busy background? From getting their point across, building an audience, and making a living, it makes no practical sense. Even the OP came out with transcripts and improved accessibility in the long run - but you have to dig in the HN threads for those. How many potential valuable followers and opinions were lost in that time?
  - CptFribble 8y ago
    > making a living > valuable followers Gaining followers and financial success is usually a sideshow to the artist's message. Compromising your message for more money is like the actual definition of selling out.
    - falcolas 8y ago
      > Gaining followers and financial success is usually a sideshow to the artist's message. There's a subreddit devoted to the rather painful ridicule of this (unfortunately common) belief. It's /r/ChoosingBeggers and it has lots of tales of people who try and exploit artists for "the exposure" and accuse them of "selling out" when they demand payment for their work. I know of no professional-grade artists who are happy to give away all their art. Even face painters at fairs charge for their moderately simplistic work.
      - CptFribble 8y ago
        I'm not suggesting artists must give away their art or be sellouts, I'm just saying that not all messages must necessarily be optimized for maximum exposure. Artists shouldn't give away their art for free, but audiences shouldn't expect all art to be easily digestible either.
  - justanothersys 8y ago
    It was intentional. To quote the article: "The Zelda cartridge I played contains 500 kilobytes of information. The game is how you are forced to browse that information."

zapzupnz 8y ago

> See any post that links to a website that doesn't adhere to whatever the latest web design fad is Legibility is not a fad, and it certainly isn't limited to web design. Legibility has been studied for decades, font foundries have worked to perfect the balance between style and legibility, and the principles are well-understood. This goes back to your crack at Material design, something wholly irrelevant to what is being talked about by me and GP. Design frameworks are not the arbiters of the legibility of text. That you think legibility is an optional extra for text is simply bizarre. Sure, it mightn't be the author's number one priority, but that doesn't put it out of criticism's way. Legibility is not simply a passing trend.