Hi, Surprising to see this lack of usability awareness here. Rosemary - the 'reason' you heard holds just about as much water as the designer who said that the small font was called 'subliminal design'. :) I'd just like to second Robert's reply, and clarify: The reasoning that Denise put forward is too often abused by designers for whom the font is a design element, rather than something that actually has to be legible and readable to their audience. The good designer will allow for good contrast, sharpness and size from the get-go. Using the small font size as a default is a good idea (particularly if you happen to know that that's your target audience's setting) - as most people don't really like to bother with such a nuisance. Imagine if you had to change your font size for every site! The reason so many sites use small fonts is mainly because it's fashionable, and looks prettier than larger fonts. Designers do, in fact, need to become more aware of how their design works with various sizes of fonts, and find attractive ways of presenting information without assuming that their entire audience has 6/6 vision, or is using IE and knows how to adjust font-sizes, etc. As someone who has taught web designers for a number of years, the main issue seems to be different ways of processing information. Designers generally think visually - i.e., composition, whole picture, balance. They have a harder time focusing on particular/logical details such as is the font readable, and does the hierarchy make sense. Teaching designers in fact involves getting them to be aware of their own info. processing biases, and how to balance their perspective. The web is hybrid. And requires us to be as well :) Heidi Dawn haLevi ................. Information and Experience Design heidi@processing.co.il
-----Original Message----- From: Denise N. Rall [mailto:denrall@yahoo.com] Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2005 5:04 AM To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org; ro.agbonlahor@arcisng.net Subject: Re: [Air-l] Web font sizes
Sorry I've been on the list a bit but I have to reply to this.
Ultimately font size is determined by the reader (viewer), go to the Explorer Menu> View >Font size and select your font size preference. I forget what it is in Netscape, it's in Preferences ?.
I leave my font sizes small when building as it is my University's preference for a standard web page. The size to the viewer is not an issue - the VIEWER can pick to go larger.
Grandparents who know this leave their Explorer View font size on larger or largest. So they view every web page in a large font. They won't even SEE the small fonts you are talking about unless someone changes their settings! ;-)
Cheers, Denise
--- Rosemary Agbonlahor <ro.agbonlahor@arcisng.net> wrote:
Hello all,
Does anyone know why some websites use very small Arial type fonts? I asked a colleague and he said it was so as to get as much information as possible on a page. Have there been studies in this area?
Thanks a lot,
Rosemary
====================== Rosemary Agbonlahor Africa Regional Centre for Information Science P.O. Box 22133 6 Benue Road University of Ibadan NIGERIA ------------------------------------------ Self development demands self discipline _______________________________________________ The Air-l-aoir.org@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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===== Denise N. Rall, PhD candidate, School of Environ. Science, Southern Cross University, Lismore NSW 2480 Sustainable Forestry Mentoring Coordinator & Internet Researcher Room T2.12, +61 (0)2 6620 3577 Tuesdays or Mobile 0438 233 344 http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/rsm/staff/pages/drall/index.html _______________________________________________ The Air-l-aoir.org@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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