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A List Apart 5.0

alistapart.com

71–80 of 87 posts

Re: A List Apart 5.0

#71
It's actually funny how the communities of developers get divided into groups. There's the know-everythings who are inclined to the technical side and have a smart answer for anything and everything, all decisions are based on manuals and numbers. Also, creative ones who have some sort of background in something else other than development, like music or illustration, etc. They usually make things touching a bit on the side of art, therefore experimenting a bit more. In some cases these dudes will actually be very well versed on the technical side, but not all of the time. So, the interesting thing here to see how people appreciate websites in different forms. You see these guys from 'A List Apart' sorta breaking schemes by doing a chopped title on the header, and people here deciding it's a bug on their browser :) . I've seen designs on the web that propose something different to the eye, where nerds will be ranting that the rules say it's wrong because you're violating the rules of this or that. Maybe I just wish I could experiment more, because I like looking at developers and designers proposing new things.

Re: A List Apart 5.0

#74
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As has been mentioned, the main header is a typographic curiosity, not a bug. Good design is often controversial. Programmer mentally is at odds with this notion. I like what they've done. It has brought greater focus to the article content. I'm all for bigger type, and the need to scroll is a non-issue in my mind.

good design serves a purpose , the half letters serves no purpose. If i did this on my site everybody would say how stupid it is , but because it's from "design rockstars" it is controvserial ? i call it bullshit .

I call design is simply not as black and white as you'd like it to be and cynicism is lazy. To deny that this aesthetic is controversial is to have not read any of this thread. The very fact that you are suggesting a lack of purpose in the design of the masthead and using a strawman to back it up suggests a modicum of controversy.

Re: A List Apart 5.0

#75
post #8
post #7

I don't think I've ever said this about a website, but the font size is way too large. There is also too much text on each line. I feel like this was approached from a layout perspective rather than a typographic one. For a site like ALA, I find the design to be really, really disappointing.

I wonder if the font size issue is because of display resolution. It looks perfect on my screen, but I usually have to zoom into pages to make them readable.

It probably does. On my 13" MacBook I need to zoom out to read A List Apart now. If I zoom out two steps in Firefox it takes the font size from 18px to ~14px (guess), which is much more comfortable to read.

It's sad that we haven't gotten further with typography on the web. The solution to "some people have to zoom in" should't be "other people have to zoom out".

Re: A List Apart 5.0

#77
post #50
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but I have created websites that look fine on everything Just checking, but really "look fine on everything", or "need to be zoomed in by many people"?

Nah, it looks fine. You can zoom in, if you want, of course, but it's entirely readable on a retina screen. Of course, those have been very sparse in layout such as blogs, so it's not a solution that fits all, but in a case like this, it would work just as well. A site like Hacker News obviously needs optimization for different viewports.

> You can zoom in, if you want, of course,

It's pleasing to be in a situation where I can say (about ALA5.0) "you can zoom out, if you want, of course" :p

Re: A List Apart 5.0

#79
post #74
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

good design serves a purpose , the half letters serves no purpose. If i did this on my site everybody would say how stupid it is , but because it's from "design rockstars" it is controvserial ? i call it bullshit .

I call design is simply not as black and white as you'd like it to be and cynicism is lazy. To deny that this aesthetic is controversial is to have not read any of this thread. The very fact that you are suggesting a lack of purpose in the design of the masthead and using a strawman to back it up suggests a modicum of controversy.

Whatever man , i call these so called "designers" bullshit, because they think they can teach people anything about design when their own design makes no sense at all, and frankly sucks. If i had a blog like this and if potential clients would see that , they sure arent going to hire me, as all the blog design feels ridicule and sloppy.

Re: A List Apart 5.0

#80
post #26

I'm kind of at a loss for words. It used to be unique and friendly, and now it is just another Medium, 37signals, altered Bootstrap-looking thing with no personality. Not including dates in the highlighted articles on the homepage (and only highlighting two to begin with?), along with putting it at the bottom of the "More From" is a huge miss (as the date of these types of articles is important to the context and to…

Medium, 37 Signals and ALA look nothing like Bootstrap at all, so I'm not sure why you made that comparison. I am not a fan of this new redesign at all and feel like Medium and 37 signals do the simple/clean layout approach much better than A List Apart. But as with all three designs, the primary focus is on the content, which I guess is why some people seem to think they lack 'personality'.

content which is barely readable on my laptop , it's not content focus as i have to scroll to get past the illustration.
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