Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Better?

I'm still playing with the look, obviously, and will likely continue to do so over the next few days, but does this change satisfy the folks who find white text on black background too taxing on their eyes? I still want a dark color scheme overall, but I also want one that doesn't cause people to flee in pain. As always, suggestions for further refinement are appreciated.

(I'll get round to the placement, size, and hierarchy of the columns once the more basic stuff is dealt with)

26 comments:

  1. I love White background with blacktext. So easy to read. Rest of the site is fannnnntastic.

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  2. Well this would be a compromise solution.

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  3. I quite like white text on black, and it's more environmentally friendly too (honestly!), but you've got to go with the majority opinion.

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  4. The links in the sidebar disappear for me if they've been clicked on -- they turn the same shade of grey as the background. They turn readable again if I roll over them, though.

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  5. Truthfully, it looks to me like I've got a newspaper in a window. It's kind of strange.

    You might want to think about using a light grey instead of white or black - depending on the shade of grey black text on light grey is almost as easy on the eyes as black on white and might give you the dark feeling you're going for.

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  6. I didn't like it. The dark grey background with white text (or a pale yellow as an option) was better.

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  7. I'm cool with whichever, considering every scheme you've put up so far is pretty subdued and easy to navigate. Most of the internet is like getting one's eyes pooped on.

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  8. I had the white on black forever, but eventually got called on it early this year and changed it. It looks good, but honestly it's not great for extended reading.

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  9. This is much better. I enjoy the changes you have made.

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  10. The blue's much better or maybe a more tannish color (like the LBB's) might be neat.

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  11. "Black text on a plain background elicited reliably faster reading performance than on a medium-textured background. When compared to reading light text on a dark background, people read black text on a white background up to thirty-two percent faster."
    http://usability.gov/pdfs/chapter11.pdf

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  12. This is odd; people are talking about grey, but I see a sort of lavender background. For consideration, you might try a light grey background with a red-brown / amber text.

    The text is also a little small on the screen of my Macbook Pro. I have to zoom in one level for it to become comfortable. You might try bumping it up one font size. Doing that will make it more legible and cause less eyestrain regardless of what color scheme you eventually chose.

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  13. This is much better for me! Although aesthetically the "all dark" background you had before looked neat, this is much easier to read, IMO. And thanks for increasing the point size on the font!

    And mostly, thanks for taking everyone's comments in the spirit they are intended: as helpful suggestions, and not as a condemnation of your site.

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  14. Looks fine to me. I think the black text on lavender works well.

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  15. Much, much better. As for the colors of the rest of the page, it would be good to use similar shades of the same color.

    Think about what colors say "grognard" to the viewer. Perhaps for the text background you could use a faded cream color of an old yellowed game rule book? Then you could use dark gold for borders. And a very dark shade of orange/red/brown? Maybe the page background could have burnt lamb skin scroll edges?

    Whatever you do, don't use more than two or three colors for backgrounds and borders. And keep the text black.

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  16. Does Blogger have a mobile version? I know Wordpress blogs can install WPtouch and be really nicely mobile-formatted for the iPhone crowd. If there was a nice mobile format for the blog it would bypass all my issues with the main one.

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  17. Nice color, this is sort of a blue version of my green color.

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  18. This new look is great, James, this is my first view of it and I was shocked (pleasantly) at these changes. Very well done! I really like the "no popup window" option for commenting, that takes out one annoying step to comment.

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  19. Ooo, very smooth loooking. I didn't even notice the change at first.

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  20. Could you maybe highlight hyperlinks without having to scroll over them? I feel like I'm stuck on a graphic adventure game...

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  21. Looking good so far but doesn't quite have the unifying color scheme the old one did. I don't mind saying I struggled with my blog's background for awhile before launching but finally settled on a blood-red theme due to my preference for high-combat games.

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  22. Much easier color scheme for reading. I am OK w/ white text on black background on the sidebars as long as the lengthy text blocks are black on a light color.

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