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> my goodness, scroll a little That's an anti-solution. Scrolling is bad for your brain and reduces comprehension - it makes it harder for your brain to figure

by fouric 6y ago

> my goodness, scroll a little That's an anti-solution. Scrolling is bad for your brain and reduces comprehension - it makes it harder for your brain to figure out what's going on. There's a continuum between "everything on the screen is 6pt text with no spacing" and gigantic mobile-UI buttons on a desktop environment - and modern webdev errs far too close to the latter. > That spacing is good [...] accessibility. Big buttons with small text and no borders - which are part of the design trend - are significantly worse for accessibility. > That spacing is good for usability Spacing in general? Yes. The ridiculous amounts of spacing that modern webdev encourages? Absolutely not. There are diminishing returns, and modern webdev goes from "reasonable" into "unreasonable" territory. > Those larger action targets and the space between them are not only good for us with vision impairment but for people whose only computing device is a phone. My argument had to do with desktop platforms. You can build websites that are usable on phones while being efficient on desktops, either by building two separate sites, or through responsive design - but modern webdev doesn't, instead choosing to build desktop sites that have all of the aforementioned problems for no good technical reason.

eyelidlessness 6y ago
First of all, I appreciate you responding. And confirming that I did understand your complaint. > There's a continuum between "everything on the screen is 6pt text with no spacing" and gigantic mobile-UI buttons on a desktop environment - and modern webdev errs far too close to the latter. This is probably not out of laziness or lack of consideration, but because pixel accurate pointing devices also better serve a wider range of desktop users when there’s larger targets. If you’re upset by this, you’re better off focusing on improving vision correction and motor skills than complaining about designs that accommodate more people than just you. > Big buttons with small text and no borders - which are part of the design trend - are significantly worse for accessibility. I disagree with your interpretation of the design trend. What I see is buttons with text consistently sized, and with padding fitting to the container to halve the cumulative padding while providing the same tappable area. > Spacing in general? Yes. The ridiculous amounts of spacing that modern webdev encourages? Absolutely not. There are diminishing returns, and modern webdev goes from "reasonable" into "unreasonable" territory. This is apparently entirely a matter of experience and opinion. But I do the majority of my web browsing on my phone except when I’m doing dev, and I feel exactly the opposite. Stuff is too crammed in. When I do browse on my computer I don’t see more spacing, just larger sizes of everything. > My argument had to do with desktop platforms. You can build websites that are usable on phones while being efficient on desktops, either by building two separate sites, or through responsive design - but modern webdev doesn't, instead choosing to build desktop sites that have all of the aforementioned problems for no good technical reason. What you’re describing is the baseline principle of responsive design. It should be available on every device. If you’re using a touch interface on a tablet, no one can know for sure you’re not on a desktop. So, big touch targets are still necessary for those users.

by fouric 6y ago

eyelidlessness 6y ago

First of all, I appreciate you responding. And confirming that I did understand your complaint. > There's a continuum between "everything on the screen is 6pt text with no spacing" and gigantic mobile-UI buttons on a desktop environment - and modern webdev errs far too close to the latter. This is probably not out of laziness or lack of consideration, but because pixel accurate pointing devices also better serve a wider range of desktop users when there’s larger targets. If you’re upset by this, you’re better off focusing on improving vision correction and motor skills than complaining about designs that accommodate more people than just you. > Big buttons with small text and no borders - which are part of the design trend - are significantly worse for accessibility. I disagree with your interpretation of the design trend. What I see is buttons with text consistently sized, and with padding fitting to the container to halve the cumulative padding while providing the same tappable area. > Spacing in general? Yes. The ridiculous amounts of spacing that modern webdev encourages? Absolutely not. There are diminishing returns, and modern webdev goes from "reasonable" into "unreasonable" territory. This is apparently entirely a matter of experience and opinion. But I do the majority of my web browsing on my phone except when I’m doing dev, and I feel exactly the opposite. Stuff is too crammed in. When I do browse on my computer I don’t see more spacing, just larger sizes of everything. > My argument had to do with desktop platforms. You can build websites that are usable on phones while being efficient on desktops, either by building two separate sites, or through responsive design - but modern webdev doesn't, instead choosing to build desktop sites that have all of the aforementioned problems for no good technical reason. What you’re describing is the baseline principle of responsive design. It should be available on every device. If you’re using a touch interface on a tablet, no one can know for sure you’re not on a desktop. So, big touch targets are still necessary for those users.