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You and I are using the same word, 'design', to mean two completely different things. To me, design is all about disseminating information to users. That's why

You and I are using the same word, 'design', to mean two completely different things. To me, design is all about disseminating information to users. That's why designers should care so much about typography - readability is absolutely key to a good design. I wish there were a good specific word for what you're referring to as 'design'. It's very prevalent, and in most cases it's actually a great example of poor design.

dragonwriter 13y ago
> You and I are using the same word, 'design', to mean two completely different things. I don't think we are. We just have different opinions about the need for it. > To me, design is all about disseminating information to users. Design is about presentation of information to users, not dissemination. > That's why designers should care so much about typography - readability is absolutely key to a good design. Readability is subjective and not essential to dissemination; design is about controlling presentation, rather than leaving it to system through which the user accesses the information. For information that doesn't have specialized presentation needs, this will make the presentation worse for people that have their defaults well tuned for themselves in the name of making it better-than-untuned-results (ideally) for the average user. > I wish there were a good specific word for what you're referring to as 'design'. There is. "Design".
- nbouscal 13y ago
  Readability is not subjective. Small font sizes, low contrast, bad kerning, and many other things objectively decrease readability. It sounds like you think the web should be a collection of RSS feeds and APIs. That's interesting and all, but that's not even remotely what the web is. The system through which the user accesses web information (aka browser) is only well-tuned for a very small minority of users, because the vast majority don't even know that they can tune their browser, let alone think that they should. Further, I've never seen a browser where the defaults make for excellent readability. In every case I've seen, they don't even make for acceptable readability. > There is. "Design". Appreciate the snark, but I was talking about a specific word for what I understood you to be talking about. Design is the exact opposite of a specific word. It's so general as to be downright vague. (Also, since you said you didn't think we were talking about different things, this comment really isn't useful.)
  - dragonwriter 13y ago
    > Readability is not subjective. Yes, it is. > Small font sizes, low contrast, bad kerning, and many other things objectively decrease readability. There are elements of design which affect readability more consistently across individual users than other elements of design do, but that doesn't stop readability from being subjective.

dragonwriter 13y ago

> You and I are using the same word, 'design', to mean two completely different things. I don't think we are. We just have different opinions about the need for it. > To me, design is all about disseminating information to users. Design is about presentation of information to users, not dissemination. > That's why designers should care so much about typography - readability is absolutely key to a good design. Readability is subjective and not essential to dissemination; design is about controlling presentation, rather than leaving it to system through which the user accesses the information. For information that doesn't have specialized presentation needs, this will make the presentation worse for people that have their defaults well tuned for themselves in the name of making it better-than-untuned-results (ideally) for the average user. > I wish there were a good specific word for what you're referring to as 'design'. There is. "Design".

nbouscal 13y ago
Readability is not subjective. Small font sizes, low contrast, bad kerning, and many other things objectively decrease readability. It sounds like you think the web should be a collection of RSS feeds and APIs. That's interesting and all, but that's not even remotely what the web is. The system through which the user accesses web information (aka browser) is only well-tuned for a very small minority of users, because the vast majority don't even know that they can tune their browser, let alone think that they should. Further, I've never seen a browser where the defaults make for excellent readability. In every case I've seen, they don't even make for acceptable readability. > There is. "Design". Appreciate the snark, but I was talking about a specific word for what I understood you to be talking about. Design is the exact opposite of a specific word. It's so general as to be downright vague. (Also, since you said you didn't think we were talking about different things, this comment really isn't useful.)
- dragonwriter 13y ago
  > Readability is not subjective. Yes, it is. > Small font sizes, low contrast, bad kerning, and many other things objectively decrease readability. There are elements of design which affect readability more consistently across individual users than other elements of design do, but that doesn't stop readability from being subjective.