momijizukamori: Green icon with white text - 'I do believe in phosphorylation! I do!' with a string of DNA basepairs on the bottom (Default)
Cocoa ([personal profile] momijizukamori) wrote in [site community profile] dw_suggestions2011-12-30 07:08 pm

Increased font size on Tropospherical site scheme

Title:
Increased font size on Tropospherical site scheme

Area:
Site scheme (Tropospherical)

Summary:
At the moment, Tropo shows entry and comment text at 75% of browser default. This winds up being a bit on the small side, compared to other similar websites, which leads to squinting and headaches after lots of site-schemed page reading for people who don't usually experience these problems, particularly as Tropo Red is the 'default' people who are new to the site see. Increasing this a bit (I would suggest 0.85em) would increase readability

Description:
This came about as a result of some of the LJ-migration recently, where a number of people who are not usually photosensitive mentioned getting headaches after browsing on both Tropo Red and Tropo Purple for a while. I did some poking about in CSS, and discovered that the 0.75em size scales text down to a bit smaller than the size I usually see on blogs or LJ's old site schemes. It's basically in that range of 'just enough change to cause problems, not enough change to be immediately noticeable'.

I wrote a quick Stylish script to increase font size to 0.82em (along with a slightly smaller line height, but I think it's the font-size that's the core issue) and got feedback that yes, it was a lot more readable that way. 0.82em is kind of weird, and I'd probably just say round up 0.85em to be neat about it.

The problem with writing it as a Stylish script, though, is that any time someone is not at their home computer, it's back to site default (and I do realize that there are other site schemes, but most people I've talked to don't like the horizontal navigation of Celerity and find black-background even harder to read). Increasing the font-size just a bit should be a fairly easy fix (unless it's not in CSS styling? I haven't had a chance to poke through files), and it's not a big enough change to negatively affect users who didn't have the problem with the smaller font size while helping people who do.

Poll #9005 Increased font size on Tropospherical site scheme
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 81


This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
33 (40.7%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
23 (28.4%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
8 (9.9%)

(I have no opinion)
17 (21.0%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

facetofcathy: four equal blocks of purple and orange shades with a rusty orange block centred on top (Default)

[personal profile] facetofcathy 2012-01-07 09:07 pm (UTC)(link)
I'd switch that around, make it Tropo Small, Hot and Red as an option and set the default to 1em. Nothing wrong with offering options for people who prefer smaller sizes.
azurelunatic: Vivid pink Alaskan wild rose. (Default)

[personal profile] azurelunatic 2012-01-07 09:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Hmm, thinking about the decision fatigue effect, I wonder if along down the line a Tropo Adjustable could be a thing -- pick your print size in a range from smallish to large (with the whole range tested to make sure that nothing breaks), pick the main color (it's a pretty limited color scheme, so pick the main color and then the rest could be calcuated), and maybe even pick your contrast level for the type vs. the background from a limited range (I like the not-quite-black and not-quite-white, but I know at least one person who needs high-contrast black on white or she gets eyestrain). And it would be set at a nice default.
runpunkrun: Pride flag based on Gilbert Baker's 1978 rainbow flag with hot pink, red, orange, yellow, sage, turquoise, blue, and purple stripes. (Default)

[personal profile] runpunkrun 2012-01-07 09:24 pm (UTC)(link)
That works for me! I just want to keep the option of a smaller Tropo for people who like it the way it is.