4 ms·

Someone please lend LayerVault some contrast. http://i.imgur.com/jfSuxcK.png http://i.imgur.com/jfSuxcK.png http://i.imgur.com/cMO4lxA.png http://i.imgur.com/

Someone please lend LayerVault some contrast. http://i.imgur.com/jfSuxcK.png http://i.imgur.com/jfSuxcK.png http://i.imgur.com/cMO4lxA.png http://i.imgur.com/cMO4lxA.png http://i.imgur.com/JnaZdN7.png http://i.imgur.com/JnaZdN7.png I cannot believe a "top notch" design house can get this so wrong. Edit: Designer News seems to suffer from the same affliction. https://news.layervault.com/ https://news.layervault.com/ A lot of sites that are HN these days seem to lack contrast, what's up with that?

alexwright 14y ago
Eyes that aren't bleeding are so overrated.
cooldeal 14y ago
My best guess is that most designers are young ones(contrast perception decreases with age) using (retina) Macs (which make fonts look thicker than in Windows). They then assume it looks good everywhere(or plain just don't care about Windows/Linux users users and/or older folks).Also, I think this design trend was started or made popular by Apple.
- ricardobeat 14y ago
  Apple caused the trend of embossed text + gray backgrounds, but they never went low-contrast; in fact their home page still uses a quite dated top menu, and sharp black on white text. Colorful, pastel, monotone and low-contrast UIs are just a general trend along with "flat" design, I don't think it's roots can be pinpointed.
  - cooldeal 14y ago
    The web App Store descriptions and reviews appear to be low contrast to me. For example: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wordament/id580935508?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wordament/id580935508?mt=8
jfoutz 14y ago
It's what happens when you design a page in photoshop. take a step back, look at the whole page without trying to pick out any details, and the page is generally very attractive. The problem is, of course, a good page design should try to call out specific detail.
peejaybee 14y ago
Yeah, when I went to the tour page, I was trying to figure out why the whole page was greyed out.
ianstormtaylor 14y ago
To be fair, a copyright message isn't something we need tons of contrast on. There are definitely places that could use extra contrast in their designs, but the copyright in their footer isn't one of them.
colmvp 14y ago
I hope you realize that the main audience of layervault and designer news is designers. Their site (which I've seen many times before) looks fine on my screen. And I would be willing to wager a bet that the majority of their core audience would have decent/pretty good screens. I'm all about usability but I'm also lenient when the audience isn't as wide as what Amazon or eBay have to cater to. I think it's a little unnerving that you'd put 'top notch.' None of those examples are break it for me as a designer and a potential customer. Overall the style and feel of the site is significantly memorable and it's a site that I've come back to time and time again.
- threedaymonk 14y ago
  > I hope you realize that the main audience of layervault and designer news is designers. That statement disturbs me a bit, because it seems to imply that contrast and readability aren't important to designers, and that designers are grudgingly humouring us normals when they make designs with legible text sizes in readable colour combinations for our ugly utilitarian sites. I don't think that's true, though. I've been lucky enough to work with some very talented designers with the ability to make things that are both elegant and readable. Anything else is just narcissistic posing, after all.
camus 14y ago
Because they use shiny mac computers that all have the same screen. If it looks bad on other screens they just dont care. They are designers , not UI UX specialists , nor know anything about readability or ergonomy. They are just trying to follow a trend , a horrible one born from only god knows where ...

alexwright 14y ago

Eyes that aren't bleeding are so overrated.

cooldeal 14y ago

My best guess is that most designers are young ones(contrast perception decreases with age) using (retina) Macs (which make fonts look thicker than in Windows). They then assume it looks good everywhere(or plain just don't care about Windows/Linux users users and/or older folks).Also, I think this design trend was started or made popular by Apple.

ricardobeat 14y ago
Apple caused the trend of embossed text + gray backgrounds, but they never went low-contrast; in fact their home page still uses a quite dated top menu, and sharp black on white text. Colorful, pastel, monotone and low-contrast UIs are just a general trend along with "flat" design, I don't think it's roots can be pinpointed.
- cooldeal 14y ago
  The web App Store descriptions and reviews appear to be low contrast to me. For example: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wordament/id580935508?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wordament/id580935508?mt=8

jfoutz 14y ago

It's what happens when you design a page in photoshop. take a step back, look at the whole page without trying to pick out any details, and the page is generally very attractive. The problem is, of course, a good page design should try to call out specific detail.

peejaybee 14y ago

Yeah, when I went to the tour page, I was trying to figure out why the whole page was greyed out.

ianstormtaylor 14y ago

To be fair, a copyright message isn't something we need tons of contrast on. There are definitely places that could use extra contrast in their designs, but the copyright in their footer isn't one of them.

colmvp 14y ago

I hope you realize that the main audience of layervault and designer news is designers. Their site (which I've seen many times before) looks fine on my screen. And I would be willing to wager a bet that the majority of their core audience would have decent/pretty good screens. I'm all about usability but I'm also lenient when the audience isn't as wide as what Amazon or eBay have to cater to. I think it's a little unnerving that you'd put 'top notch.' None of those examples are break it for me as a designer and a potential customer. Overall the style and feel of the site is significantly memorable and it's a site that I've come back to time and time again.

threedaymonk 14y ago
> I hope you realize that the main audience of layervault and designer news is designers. That statement disturbs me a bit, because it seems to imply that contrast and readability aren't important to designers, and that designers are grudgingly humouring us normals when they make designs with legible text sizes in readable colour combinations for our ugly utilitarian sites. I don't think that's true, though. I've been lucky enough to work with some very talented designers with the ability to make things that are both elegant and readable. Anything else is just narcissistic posing, after all.

camus 14y ago

Because they use shiny mac computers that all have the same screen. If it looks bad on other screens they just dont care. They are designers , not UI UX specialists , nor know anything about readability or ergonomy. They are just trying to follow a trend , a horrible one born from only god knows where ...