IBM Plex – A new typeface • Hacker News Board

Re: IBM Plex – A new typeface

#161

Post by zeth___ » Thu, Mar 29, 2018, 7:53 AM UTC

BoorishBears wrote: post #97

chao- wrote: post #81

This is one of the most frustrating page navigation experiences I have had in long a while. I tend to scroll with pgup/pgdn or arrow keys (or more occasionally, space/shift+space) and when I got to the big "IBM" logo the page just kind of stopped. I thought that was all. It wasn't until I came to this thread I realized there was more, and I should look again, but even then it took me forever to: 1. Realize I needed t…

Before clicking the link: grumble grumble typical HN, top comment is whining about the webpage instead of focusing on the content. sigh After clicking the link on my smartphone: Sweet mother of Jesus, what have they done.

Kill it with fire.

Re: IBM Plex – A new typeface

#162

Post by danso » Thu, Mar 29, 2018, 8:00 AM UTC

chao- wrote: post #81

This is one of the most frustrating page navigation experiences I have had in long a while. I tend to scroll with pgup/pgdn or arrow keys (or more occasionally, space/shift+space) and when I got to the big "IBM" logo the page just kind of stopped. I thought that was all. It wasn't until I came to this thread I realized there was more, and I should look again, but even then it took me forever to: 1. Realize I needed t…

I always chuckle at seeing the "The damn page hijacked my back button/spacebar/Tab/cursor keys!" comments because even though they are technically right, they usually exaggerate the inconvenience. But goddamn this has to be one of the most frustrating websites from a huge company/vendor I've ever used, despite the very cool offering.

It actually was pretty straightforward on iOS Chrome mobile. On Desktop though -- WTF, users are supposed to eventually figure out how to activate the hidden menubar at the top? My first thought after mousewheeling to the giant IBM logo was that Chrome had crashed, because motion/interactivity had seemingly stopped so suddenly. Not since the Flash days have I seen a bespoke interactive web experience with such prominent navigation/UX confusion.

That said, when I figured out how to navigate, I enjoyed reading the narrative text, and I definitely plan on trying the font out in my next project.

Re: IBM Plex – A new typeface

#163

Post by practice9 » Thu, Mar 29, 2018, 8:13 AM UTC

jordaniusrex wrote: post #154

mlazos wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminded me exactly of that Dropbox design page at dropbox.design - it was the exact same frustrating experience. If this is a trend please make it stop.

Same agency http://www.xxix.co/

I wonder how the decision process went.

Perhaps something along the lines: "Wow, look at that ugly page from Dropbox. My eyes hurt! Let's make ours even uglier!"

It's all about "Designer experience", not "User Experience" in this case (i.e. trying to be edgy for the sake of it, in order to impress your designer / PM peers)

Re: IBM Plex – A new typeface

#164

Post by O_H_E » Thu, Mar 29, 2018, 8:28 AM UTC

noonespecial wrote: post #142

The f, l, and r hurt my eyes in a way I didn't know I could be hurt until now! There's something diabolical about that right angle and unnatural narrowing.

the "t" gets one angle with a rounded curve, and one is 90 degree sharp

Re: IBM Plex – A new typeface

#165

Post by a_e_k » Thu, Mar 29, 2018, 8:44 AM UTC

Corrado wrote: post #160

Looking at the character grid near the bottom of the page[0] you can see that they have created not one, not two, but three different ways to represent zero; empty middle, dot middle, slash middle. Is there any reason for this at all? How do you even select a particular glyph? Are they on a different codepage or something? [0] https://www.ibm.com/plex/specs/

"OpenType features" can let you define variations within a font. There's a standard one for slashed vs. non-slashed zeroes (not sure about dotted):

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/typography/opentype/spec/fe...

Re: IBM Plex – A new typeface

#166

Post by hnarn » Thu, Mar 29, 2018, 9:55 AM UTC

bluenose69 wrote: post #129

I've tried Plex but keep going back to Monaco. Somehow, my eyes grow weary faster with Plex. This may just be a function of my age, so your mileage may vary, but here's a listing of things that I think make Plex tiresome for coding: 1. The lower-case ell ("l") and number one ("1") look so similar that I need almost to squint to see the difference, if I'm tired. 2. Plex seems to distinguish between letters by small "i…

Have you tried Iosevka? It's been my favorite code font for a while, mainly because it's so configurable (your #1 can be changed to your preference, and has a sane default), it's free and it's slightly narrowed which makes more code fit in the same space without sacrificing legibility.

Re: IBM Plex – A new typeface

#167

Post by madspindel » Thu, Mar 29, 2018, 10:08 AM UTC

jordaniusrex wrote: post #154

mlazos wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminded me exactly of that Dropbox design page at dropbox.design - it was the exact same frustrating experience. If this is a trend please make it stop.

Same agency http://www.xxix.co/

Is this a joke? I visited the website on my phone and it's horrible broken with "cards" all over the place.

Re: IBM Plex – A new typeface

#168

Post by sfifs » Thu, Mar 29, 2018, 10:12 AM UTC

danso wrote: post #162

chao- wrote: post #81

This is one of the most frustrating page navigation experiences I have had in long a while. I tend to scroll with pgup/pgdn or arrow keys (or more occasionally, space/shift+space) and when I got to the big "IBM" logo the page just kind of stopped. I thought that was all. It wasn't until I came to this thread I realized there was more, and I should look again, but even then it took me forever to: 1. Realize I needed t…

I always chuckle at seeing the "The damn page hijacked my back button/spacebar/Tab/cursor keys!" comments because even though they are technically right, they usually exaggerate the inconvenience. But goddamn this has to be one of the most frustrating websites from a huge company/vendor I've ever used, despite the very cool offering. It actually was pretty straightforward on iOS Chrome mobile. On Desktop though -- WT…

In my company, I've often used an IBM created expense reporting tool as an example of how NOT to design UI :-) Looks like the mindset permeates the company.

Thankfully we use a far superior tool now :-)

Re: IBM Plex – A new typeface

#169

Post by Ice_cream_suit » Thu, Mar 29, 2018, 10:32 AM UTC

I need to claw my eyes out, after visiting that web page.

Re: IBM Plex – A new typeface

#170

Post by moreentropy » Thu, Mar 29, 2018, 10:53 AM UTC

At first I liked it but then I saw the strange ß (german Eszett, ss can be used instead).

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9F I understand that that's the Antiqua form while nowadays the Sulzbacher form is used. But I don't know anything serious about typography.