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Honest question: why do so many design/HCI/typography experts have unreadable/unusable websites of their own? I don't doubt what you're saying, but damn.

dragonwriter 7y ago
> Honest question: why do so many design/HCI/typography experts have unreadable/unusable websites of their own? Because they are not only aware of what is ideal, they are aware of the effort-payoff balance involved in doing it right. The ones that have a secure brand and are sharing knowledge for free (as opposed to the ones using their website to build/establish a personal brand) don't have a lot of incentive to invest heavily.
- LaGrange 7y ago
  ...except it actually took effort to make it that bad. Plain HTML without any styling whatsoever would be more readable. Someone _thought this was an improvement_.
  - dragonwriter 7y ago
    > ...except it actually took effort to make it that bad. Plain HTML without any styling whatsoever would be more readable Handcoding HTML is a lot more effort than picking up one of the many canned tools that you configure some settings and throw text at and it produces a blog.
MaxBarraclough 7y ago
No kidding. I like the minimalism, I don't mind the ugly, but the minuscule font size is just awful.
- maximus1983 7y ago
  The font size would have been fine in the 2000s. The site is made of tables and it is obviously quite old.
mattkevan 7y ago
Just like how some open source projects object to improving the look and feel of their software as it would be ‘dumbing it down’, UX designers, especially those from an HCI background somehow feel that making their stuff look good also makes it less functional. Forgetting that properly good design is both usable and also doesn’t look like a dog’s dinner.
trumpeta 7y ago
I think this holds for design and typography, but HCI is not about design, so as long as its usable, it can be ugly.

dragonwriter 7y ago

> Honest question: why do so many design/HCI/typography experts have unreadable/unusable websites of their own? Because they are not only aware of what is ideal, they are aware of the effort-payoff balance involved in doing it right. The ones that have a secure brand and are sharing knowledge for free (as opposed to the ones using their website to build/establish a personal brand) don't have a lot of incentive to invest heavily.

LaGrange 7y ago
...except it actually took effort to make it that bad. Plain HTML without any styling whatsoever would be more readable. Someone _thought this was an improvement_.
- dragonwriter 7y ago
  > ...except it actually took effort to make it that bad. Plain HTML without any styling whatsoever would be more readable Handcoding HTML is a lot more effort than picking up one of the many canned tools that you configure some settings and throw text at and it produces a blog.

MaxBarraclough 7y ago

No kidding. I like the minimalism, I don't mind the ugly, but the minuscule font size is just awful.

maximus1983 7y ago
The font size would have been fine in the 2000s. The site is made of tables and it is obviously quite old.

mattkevan 7y ago

Just like how some open source projects object to improving the look and feel of their software as it would be ‘dumbing it down’, UX designers, especially those from an HCI background somehow feel that making their stuff look good also makes it less functional. Forgetting that properly good design is both usable and also doesn’t look like a dog’s dinner.

trumpeta 7y ago

I think this holds for design and typography, but HCI is not about design, so as long as its usable, it can be ugly.