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Generation UX – How to make websites age-friendly

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Re: Generation UX – How to make websites age-friendly

#91
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But Reader Mode is not always available. I've settled into using the menu option "View..Page Style...No Style" on noisy pages. Now I need a "No Style" browser that finds the beginning of the narrative automatically.

On Firefox that's "View ... Page Style ... No style." And I do that enough times per day (precious snowflake designers, take note) that I installed the Firefox addon "Disable Style button" which adds a red/white "CSS" stop sign button. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/disable-style... Honestly, that one button fixes almost every UI/UX problem I encounter. I never use Reader Mode, I never open developer…

Ooooh! Thanks for that one!

Re: Generation UX – How to make websites age-friendly

#92
> Things you can do to make your website easier to use include making sure that clickable links and buttons have a decent clickable area, and that pages can be navigated using just the keyboard

Hah. I don't know why this receives mention - while I'd love it if it were common practice, nobody actually thinks about this and it's unlikely to change. And it's not just web sites: let's not forget the slew of Electron apps where keyboard integration is nonexistent, partial, or an afterthought.

Re: Generation UX – How to make websites age-friendly

#93

Noted is the distraction from automatically changing carousels. I've found this a major area of concern -- not just carousels but any autoplay content, automatic slides, and text marquees. And beyond distraction, these elements assume a specific pace of reading and require the user to build UI understanding to get back to interesting content they glimpsed in passing. If the content is compelling enough to display, it…

We've come back around to , but with more obnoxious multi-element components. Even better, it's somehow accepted as a good thing to do.

Re: Generation UX – How to make websites age-friendly

#94
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a limit, though. I end up browsing most modern websites at ~120% zoom when I'm tired, because it's more comfortable. Lay back in chair, still read comfortably. There's so much wasted whitespace it usually doesn't even break the layout. I'm 29 and my eyesight with glasses is ok. Been wearing 'em for 22 years. But really the worst offenders are gray text on lighter gray background websites. Whyyyy designers why…

Send the offending designers to http://contrastrebellion.com/

How does that help the situation?

Re: Generation UX – How to make websites age-friendly

#95
post #88
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is the contrast ratios. The contrast between 0% black and 100% white on a good screen is so high, it physically causes pain, even migraines. Which is why on HDR screens, the colors of CSS are actually limited to avoid ever going darker than grey or brighter than grey, and the contrast is still very large. #000000 on a cheap screen is equivalent to #666666 on an HDR screen, #ffffff on a cheap screen is equ…

> The problem is the contrast ratios. The contrast between 0% black and 100% white on a good screen is so high, it physically causes pain, even migraines. Maybe that means you need to turn down your screen's brightness.

No, that’d be exactly the wrong solution.

Because then displaying color-calibrated content on your display (such as movies, games, photos) is also completely distorted.

Instead, we need a way to specify CSS colors relative to a colorspace and contrast ratio.

Re: Generation UX – How to make websites age-friendly

#96
post #59
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, it makes sense that Google Maps would have distinct concepts for "zooming in to the map" that would be separate from "resizing font". The inverse problem exists on the browser, though - there's no way to resize the viewport on mobile.

Sure, but I think the font should be (to some extent) scaled proportionally to the map area or perhaps some other way of making the text larger. A typical use case for me is zooming in on a highway to see what exit number a particular ramp is. Today that info is basically unreadable on either platform.

On the other hand, I don't want to see giant a 'D' over where I live because on a far out zoom level it happens to say 'UNITED KINGDOM', and someone wanted to zoom in to see the font.

Re: Generation UX – How to make websites age-friendly

#97
post #51

As sort of a sidenote: websites about UX seem to have the worst UX. Clicking the link, I'm not only met by a social sharing bar that uses 1/6th of the screen and screws scrolling up (because for some reason it should follow through my scrolling but somehow only be visible when scrolling upwards), but a faux-chat window overlaying the content where a Tom is asking me how he can help me. Not at all, thank you. At least…

As a UX designer I have seen a lot of this stuff over the years and I always find it funny. DesignerNews.com, which is an imitation of this site, is chock full of articles like this. The big thing to understand is a lot of people in The Blogosphere(TM) who post articles about UX don't really give a rip about anything other than the pageviews whether it's for ad revenue, establishing themselves as a thought leader, or…

Have you ever considered putting together a newsletter of the weekly best posts across all that you follow?

I would definitely subscribe.

Re: Generation UX – How to make websites age-friendly

#98
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> have a bias for full-width sites and browsers. Ah, of course. He's using it wrong!

No, not at all. If he doesn't like it, then he doesn't like it, I can't disagree with that at all. My point is that the page builders consciously thought of this part, and came up with a reasonable and accommodating design, which I (a narrow-width user) only noticed because of the comment.

Or you luckily happen to exemplify a corner-case.

Re: Generation UX – How to make websites age-friendly

#99
post #80
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> besides, if you know what an envelope is you probably know what a stamp An envelope is an arbitrary thing that means email. Much like a floppy disk is an arbitrary thing that means save. The postal system and floppy drives are about as relevant as each other. I prefer the taskbar icon look - ie, raw shape - than the colored background look too. But the raw shapes certainly are far more better than the distracting,…

You... really think icons are more user-friendly if you take away color differentiation? I find that entirely confusing. It's the result of a "make this interface look like something out of a Mission Impossible movie, we want those screenshots to look slick !" directive, not a user-friendliness effort. [EDIT] As for familiarity, I started on DOS, was a Windows user from 3.1 through 10 (finally ditched 10 a couple wee…

Reducing detail focuses on what's important.

I've used all those systems you have, and the worst are ones where someone had tried to use the entire palette or colors and greatest graphic detail in shapes.

Re: Generation UX – How to make websites age-friendly

#100
I think something mentioned in the article that's usually not mentioned is the loss of motor skills as you age. I find that for myself, a 20-something year old web developer, it's easy to fall into the 'Everyone on the internet is like me' mindset. However I try to maintain perspective by observing my grandparents as they browse the internet on their iPads. The loss of motor skills is easily one of the most frustrating parts of web browsing for them. If they have to try more than twice to click your small hamburger menu that you put conveniently right next to the 'Log out' button, they'll simply give up and move on to the next thing.

An example of what I feel is an elegant solution - They used to have the hardest time playing/pausing YouTube videos when they would rely only on the buttons. However, once I showed them how to play/pause by clicking the entire video, they were relieved and much more appreciative of the technology. I think that this approach is more sound; instead of simply making everything larger, or having larger clickboxes, simply create multiple ways to interact with the content that doesn't interfere with other users. Nobody is upset that you can play/pause videos by clicking on them, but I imagine they would be if the play/pause buttons were 5x larger than they are now.

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