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Twitter's new font, Chirp, is apparently giving some users headaches

cnet.com

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Re: Twitter's new font, Chirp, is apparently giving some users headaches

#71

Post by fernandotakai »

mihaic wrote: post #33

To anyone saying "Users will complain about anything", I'm on a Windows desktop and this is honestly the most unpleasant reading experience I've had on any big website in recent memory. There seems to be an issue with the OS antialiasing that is rendering characters slightly blurry to feel it's not focused, further straining my eyes. Seems to have only been tested on Bay Area Apple devices.

i find the new font absolutely HORRIBLE on desktop. but it's quite pleasant on mobile (more specifically, on a galaxy s21).

Re: Twitter's new font, Chirp, is apparently giving some users headaches

#73

Post by pavlov »

dfxm12 wrote: post #43
browningstreet wrote: post #25

Not every thing on the Internet needs its own font. (I say as the former head of a type foundry.)

Why not try, though? First and foremost, I think it's a good thing that designers are getting work. I also think huge "for fun" webapps are in a particularly advantageous place when it comes to pushing the boundaries of design, mostly because they have people on hand who can do it and who probably want to do it. Next, it's really a low risk preposition. Maybe Office 365 needs to be conservative with fonts. Twitter ca…

> "Maybe Office 365 needs to be conservative with fonts. Twitter can push boundaries, though."

What's the difference between Office and Twitter here? Both are apps that should just get out of the way of the content.

Most software should just have native UI that follows the platform guidelines. Unfortunately software companies hire graphic designers who know nothing about interaction design, and generalist programmers who want to do one-size-fits-all UIs. And that's how you get unreadable fonts in slow Electron apps.

Re: Twitter's new font, Chirp, is apparently giving some users headaches

#74

Post by lotsofpulp »

ceejayoz wrote: post #21
userbinator wrote: post #2

This is what user stylesheets were intended to solve. Too bad the majority browsers have gone down the path of attempting to remove all customisation.

I don't blame the browsers, really. Look at the source code of Twitter or Facebook. It's intentionally obfuscated and mangled, probably in part to fuck with ad blockers. I have a few user stylesheets (even a little custom Firefox extension to block one user's comments on a site I frequent), but the sites I'd really like to use them on largely don't make it possible to do so. Look at a Facebook ad in your browser's we…

I assume any problem or slowness I have with a website on Safari in MacOS or iOS using a content blocker is due to the website wanting to track me or otherwise for advertisement purposes.

Re: Twitter's new font, Chirp, is apparently giving some users headaches

#75

Post by smnrchrds »

jaywalk wrote: post #45
zippergz wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. You can't blame this on testing only on Macs, because it's bad on my Mac too.

It's bad on Mac, it's bad on Windows. What the hell did they use to develop and test this where it looked good?

Has to be a BeBox.

Re: Twitter's new font, Chirp, is apparently giving some users headaches

#76

Post by epistasis »

Every UI change forces a cost on your users. It forces them to relearn the language of what your buttons mean (the Follow button semantics here are atrocious now, and give almost no affordances to users about what is going on).

Changes to UI reduce familiarity, and if they are fond of your product, that is usually a really bad thing. Having a good friend change personality is disturbing and unpleasant!

What is gained from these changes from Twitter, other than some employees are able to say they influenced the product? They may have tested with some users, but was the testing representative of reality? What risk was taken here for what amount of potential gain?

Re: Twitter's new font, Chirp, is apparently giving some users headaches

#77

Post by megous »

userbinator wrote: post #2

This is what user stylesheets were intended to solve. Too bad the majority browsers have gone down the path of attempting to remove all customisation.

You don't need to use website font's. You can configure the browser to use your chosen fonts. It's a normal accessibility option on the browser config page.

The only problem is devs who use fonts for icons, which is as stupid as it sounds.

https://megous.com/dl/tmp/0199107a482b8f75.png

(It would be nice to also have minimum font weight setting, not just minimum size, because some designers just can't be helped and use <=200. Then most of the issues with typography on the web would be solved.)

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