

Elements of a Clean Web Design - sirwitti
http://sixrevisions.com/web_design/elements-clean-web-design/

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ec429
Hmm, I disagree. In my opinion, 'clean' web design means the now sadly old-
fashioned approach of: have some text, marked up to indicate emphasis,
headings etc., then let the damn browser decide what it should look like.

CSS to change colours and relative proportions is, I suppose, a concession
that had to be made to 'designers', but when you, as the page author, are
having to concern yourself with _typography_ , then something has gone
horribly wrong. Layout, spacing, leading - these are all the /browser's/ job;
at most the page should give a few hints ("this section needs to be clear" ->
use more leading/spacing), since such hints are meaningful to other renderings
than the graphical browser. Did these designers ever stop to think about blind
people relying on text-to-speech? It's obvious how that should render <em> \-
with emphasis - but what does it do with "letter-spacing:110%;"?

As for the advice about using a grid, that should definitely have been
accompanied with the caveat that your design should still flow to the
browser's width. Fixed-width web pages are _evil_, where by evil I actually
mean _stupid_.

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earnubs
I like how you quote the word designers, it helped me to discount everything
you said.

However, for what it's worth, of the many stupid (or is it evil?) things you
wrote the best was 'how should a screen reader deal with letter-spacing'.
Letter spacing is an aid for the visual user it makes text easier to read in
certain cases. A screen reader doesn't 'read' in the human sense.

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ec429
I disagree: increased letter spacing is a form of emphasis.

Perhaps you are confusing it with kerning, which does make text easier to
read, and which absolutely should at all times be automated (no exceptions,
not even for 'display' text).

Also, I quoted "designers" in the strict sense of scare quotes: to indicate
that the word's meaning was different from (my understanding of) its usual
definition. Most people who design things are not visual artists; properly
construed, "designer" is almost synonymous with the modern meaning of
"engineer". However, on the web at least, its meaning has been blurred.

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earnubs
You are free to disagree, you're still wrong. Kerning and tracking are about
the space between two letters, adjusted dependent on the form of the letters
in question to reduce the appearance of gaps between same.

Letter-spacing is the overall spacing between letters and is again purely
visual, used to prevent unsightly gaps toward the end of the line in justified
text or to make uppercase titles easier to read.

The only meaning you might possibly want to convey to an unsighted user
regarding letter-spacing is a propensity for sheep rustling (however
blackletter isn't a popular style on the web).

~~~
ec429
Non-emphatic letter-spacing changes are susceptible to automation, thus should
be automated.

If, for instance, uppercase text requires wider spacing, the browser — or
better still, the font renderer — should work that out; the designer should
not have to explicitly tell it things like that.

Since, in any case, most manual typography is already algorithmic (if such-
and-such condition, the spacing needs to be increased), and since the
'judgement calls' about the aesthetics of type are already encoded into the
font by the foundry, manual typography outside the foundry is /obsolete/:
machines can do it better, because they can use optimisation algorithms to
find the best trade-offs (compare, for instance, TeX's line-breaking algorithm
to the common manual approach of "first-fit, but backtrack if the solution is
too poor").

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yaix
Primarily, good design should not distract the user's from the content or main
objective of a page.

For example, text content should be dark, navigation and other stuff should be
light or grey. Use simple icons that do not distract. Don't distract the user
by large unrelated graphics or images. Don't use animated stuff if it's not
related to the content (or monetizes the page). Keep everything around the
main content simple and lighter than the main content.

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snambi
Good points.

