Style=Light: Adding Links to Switch to Style=Mine or Original Style

[jumpuphigh]

Title:
Style=Light: Adding Links to Switch to Style=Mine or Original Style

Area:
Style

Summary:
Have links on the top of a page being displayed in style=light to change the page into the original style or style=mine.

Description:
I frequently end up on a page that is style=light via links in other people's posts. Style=light is not accessibility friendly for me and I need to switch it to something that will work for me before I can read it. On a good day, that just means changing the address in my browser's address bar and hitting enter. On a bad day, that means closing the tab very quickly, going back to the post that had the link (which is problematic if I've opened a ton of tabs and am reading them much later), copying the link, pasting it into my address bar, modifying it, and then hitting enter.

Neither process is user friendly. I expect some people may not even know how to modify the address so that it is no longer style=light.

The amount of white space on style=light obviously works for a number of people but the brightness of the white is often problematic for people with visual disorders, brain disorders or migraines. Having an easy way to switch away from that will help people who need a quick and easy solution for navigating away from that style.

If some people who regularly use style=light could weigh in as to whether one or two additional links at the top of the page would cause them problems, that would be appreciated.

Poll #5019 Style=Light: Adding Links to Switch to Style=Mine or Original Style

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 51

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
40 (78.4%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
5 (9.8%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
0 (0.0%)

(I have no opinion)
6 (11.8%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[azurelunatic]

I like this idea.

I also think that it could be advantageous for a logged-in user to be able to tweak the way that light-format pages display for them, like by changing text and background color.

[matgb]

I thought you did that in browser settings though?

I have no objection to that plan, but mine displays plae blue background with verdana font in black, which is my preference in Fx.

REgardless, definitely would be good to have some sort of brief explanation with a link to normal format, I loath following light format links, and if people link to me in that format readers'll unknowingly miss formatting stuff.

[azurelunatic]

A somewhat-unobtrusive box, maybe at top right (or somewhere else that actual UX experts prefer) for logged-out users and any logged-in users who haven't turned it off somewhere, with links to view it in any given format we offer?

[matgb]

Works for me; I'm especially concerned for non LJ/DW codebase users, a fair few people read LJ/DW sources for info without having accounts and similar, and many will never learn the little unfriendly tweaks. All of my posts have an embedded link to light format for people that need it, but if you're in light format, it might as well be an orphan page.

[melannen]

This should also be there to allow people to switch from site scheme to light style or user's style.

Alternatively, just make it possible to turn the nav bar on for all entry pages, not just ones in a user style. (I have no idea how hard this would be to code.)

[aedifica]

+1 for nav bar!

[ratcreature]

Yes. A navbar would be great.

[cesy]

Just adding these two text links would be brilliant. I use my bookmarklet a lot, but that doesn't work when I'm not on my own computer.

[kerravonsen]

I would prefer only one added link in style=light rather than two. The light style is supposed to be simple, so the fewer things cluttering it up the better.

[faithofone]

I approve of the suggestion. However in the mean time, if I may offer a suggestion that may help you out... Most browsers have the option of setting default colors. I've currently got a very pale yellow/cream color for a background with a dark brownish red font. This works better for me than the higher contrast white and black scheme that would be default for my browser.

I know that it is possible to set the default colors in most browsers. If you decide to try it, and need help finding the setting I'll be glad to do some research on whichever browser you are using, if need be.

[daweaver]

Posters ask why people use light styling. There are reasons why I generally link to Livejournal posts using ?format=light, a) because it makes the advertisements less prominent and b) so that I can be sure I'll be giving a moderately-readable link when I follow the link again in some months or years. The original poster has extreme difficulty reading black-on-white, I have great difficulty reading light-on-dark. While the advertisements point is not strictly relevant to Dreamwidth, everything else remains so.

On the substantive suggestion, a link to "show this post with formatting" - redirecting to the post without any additional URI arguments - could easily go into a new table cell to the right of the user/date/time detail. It harms no-one to add this additional choice, and is far lighter on bandwidth than all the javascript embedded in each page.