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Design of This Website (2021)

gwern.net

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Re: Design of This Website (2021)

#111

Post by leephillips »

bradley_taunt wrote: post #85
hypertele-Xii wrote: post #34

For a site that lists its #1 principle as minimalism, it sure has a lot going on at all times. Multiple menus all over the screen, many different kinds of links with distinct underline and icon suffix, popups within popups that reinvent OS window functionality, historiated initials, graphical horizontal divider with hidden links, a recommended articles carousel, and a very (visually) busy comments section. Minimal it…

Would argue the same as others that this still falls more into “brutalist” rather than minimalism. My website[0] is far from ideal, but certainly falls in line better with the term “minimalism” (page speed, assets loaded, initial paint etc) 0: https://tdarb.org/

I like it. I subscribed to your RSS feed.

Re: Design of This Website (2021)

#112

Post by samatman »

ManuelKiessling wrote: post #82
enriquto wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a small icon with the three flags this does not address the main problem that flags do not correspond to languages. German is spoken in more than "the three" countries, and in these countries there are more languages than German. Thus, using flags is insensitive and alienating to German speakers from other countries (e.g., Belgium), and non-German speakers from these three countries (e.g., Lugano). And this is just…

I get it, but - what's the solution? At least the flags, while being offensive to some, are generally understood as a "signal for language".

I would suggest doing what Wikipedia does: print the name of the language, in the language. So Deutsch for German, 日本語 for Japanese, and so on.

If you need a corresponding URI fragment, the ISO language codes exist for that reason.

Re: Design of This Website (2021)

#113

Post by leephillips »

Jaruzel wrote: post #35

Yet again, this is a website that has clearly only been tested on a hiDPI screen. At 100% scaling on Windows, the serif font used doesn't kern or render properly; crossbars in letters such as 't' and 'f' are overweight compared to other strokes, and makes the font look uneven. Designers all seem to think we use 4k screens at 200% scaling, for that ultra smooth look, when in reality, that's far from the case[1]. Edit:…

But what’s the cause? Bugs in Windows’ font rendering? Or a lack of hinting in the custom font?

Re: Design of This Website (2021)

#114

Post by leephillips »

mrob wrote: post #104

The design is bad because it uses full justification, which hurts readability by making all the lines the same length, which weakens the visual cues for vertical position, and makes the spacing between words inconsistent. But I don't really care, because the site works correctly with Firefox's Reader View, which is better than any custom design because it always looks the same.

> hurts readability by making all the lines the same length

Do you regard all books as poorly desgined?

Re: Design of This Website (2021)

#115

Post by extra88 »

chanc3e wrote: post #92
ManuelKiessling wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get it, but - what's the solution? At least the flags, while being offensive to some, are generally understood as a "signal for language".

This feels a little nitpicky to me - as a short hand for language and currency flags are commonplace. But I understand the thinking: "a language is nothing but a dialect with a flag" The alternative is to use ISO (En, De, Es) in brackets before the text begins. i.e. [DE] Wie Studien verdreht werden

Flags for currency mostly work because nations choose their flag and choose their currency. Flags for languages doesn't work because it's common for the same language to be popular in different countries and for multiple languages to be popular within a single country.

ISO language abbreviations would be a better alternative than the flags but I don't think anything is needed at all; anyone who knows German will recognize the post titles written in German and anyone who doesn't know it will still recognize that they're not in English.

The links do have `hreflang="de"` which in theory can programmatically indicate the language used at the destination, I'm not sure there's any technology that takes advantage of that. They could use a ::before pseudo-element with content: attributes(hreflang) to display the ISO code instead of the flag images. I would like to see `lang="de"` attributes on the German headings and paragraphs on the home page, they would tell screen readers to switch to a voice appropriate for the language when read aloud.

Re: Design of This Website (2021)

#116

Post by sdevonoes »

epolanski wrote: post #90

I like the design, but semantics and accessibility aren't great. We have lists implemented like divs, navs like divs, lack of appropriate attributes, aria labels and few other things. That's not great considering there's basically only static content without interaction. Articles speaks about optimizing for performance but will still attempt to load 150kb of analytics library and doesn't handle fallback fonts and fon…

> We have lists implemented like divs, navs like divs, lack of appropriate attributes, aria labels and few other things.

Since I don't use accessibility tools: how big of a deal is this for people who do? I try to keep my personal website lightweight, but I think I also use `div` for almost everything.

Re: Design of This Website (2021)

#117

Post by leephillips »

exodust wrote: post #72
wetpaws wrote: post #23

I fund gwern unreadable, despite their focus on typography. Maybe it's just my b rain not working very well with serif fonts.

> serif fonts Can't understand why websites choose serif fonts. I find long passages of text a chore to read when the font is serif. They're less readable than sans-serif, as the little feet on every letter adds up to unnecessary visual clutter. And when rendered as white text on a black page, with compacted line spacing, the contrasty serif fonts won't be inviting to the reader.

“Can't understand why websites choose serif fonts. I find long passages of text a chore to read when the font is serif.”

Reading books must be a problem, as most of those are set in serif type. The traditional view is that long passages are easier to read in serif fonts, but tastes vary, and there’s not a lot of good evidence for it. Personally, I find it to be true.

Are you reading on a blurry (dpi < 200) screen? That could be the problem.

Re: Design of This Website (2021)

#118

Post by tompazourek »

The font hinting there looks quite ugly when viewing this on Windows. The font has some very sharp and thick edges, it's not very smooth and comfortable to read. It's probably much better on macOS or somewhere HiDPI.

When I add `* { font-family: georgia!important }` and scale the page down to 75 %, then it's quite comfortable to read.

Re: Design of This Website (2021)

#119

Post by enriquto »

extra88 wrote: post #115
chanc3e wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This feels a little nitpicky to me - as a short hand for language and currency flags are commonplace. But I understand the thinking: "a language is nothing but a dialect with a flag" The alternative is to use ISO (En, De, Es) in brackets before the text begins. i.e. [DE] Wie Studien verdreht werden

Flags for currency mostly work because nations choose their flag and choose their currency. Flags for languages doesn't work because it's common for the same language to be popular in different countries and for multiple languages to be popular within a single country. ISO language abbreviations would be a better alternative than the flags but I don't think anything is needed at all; anyone who knows German will reco…

> Flags for currency mostly work

Do you think so?

Which flag would you use for euros? Obviously not the european union flag, since there are many countries inside the EU with a different currency (like Sweden or Poland) and even countries outside the EU whose currency is the euro (Montenegro, Kosovo, Andorra, ...).

Re: Design of This Website (2021)

#120

Post by notacoward »

hypertele-Xii wrote: post #101
duckmysick wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> By right-justifying instead, the left edge of the text is made varying, and your eyes have an easier time picking the correct next line. Is there any research done on this? > You actually experience physical pain? No. It slows down my reading and it makes it difficult to understand text.

> Is there any research done on this? BeeLine [0] claims to be backed by research and employs a similar device. Seems to be a new idea, and I wanted to experiment. [0] https://www.beelinereader.com/

I just did the "challenge" at BeeLine and they are not using right-justified text or even mentioning it. What "similar device" are you talking about?
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