Hi,
Felix Miata wrote:
It is arrogant to impose it, rather than merely wish it. What you are
doing is saying to your visitors "I can't actually know what your
default is, but regardless what it really is, it's too big for me, and
I'm imposing a xx% reduction from whatever you chose as most appropriate
for yourself, whether your default is 9px, or 90px or anything in
between."
Perhaps it is a bit arrogant for a designer or developer to decide for the user which font-size is most suitable, but design requires that choices be made. Otherwise, we should simply abandon all forms of content styling and rely entirely upon the user to assert their styling desires via whatever means are available to them.
We consistently make choices for the user that we feel will improve the user's experience. In many cases we specify font-face, line-height, letter-spacing, color, background-color, emphasis, strength, paragraph width, text effects, and heading levels. All of these choices impact readability and they each alter the user's default settings to some extent.
For example, the page you provided earlier (http://members.ij.net/mrmazda/auth/defaultsize.html) is a prime example of how the author simultaneously champions and ignores the importance of the user's preferences. To my eyes, the page is far more readable unstyled than when the font-color, background-color, headings, and font-face are altered to suit the authors idea of pleasant. The font-size seems to have the least impact on how easy or difficult the document is to read, but is the main focus of the information.
"The web is about control, but not the designer's, it is the user's control that is central to the design and philosophy of the web." John Allsopp at http://webstandardsgroup.org/features/john-allsopp.cfm
This particular page sets the font-size for paragraphs and list to 80%, so I don't think this is the best supporting argument for your point. In fact, most of the elements on this page are altered to be either larger or smaller than my default settings. I do, however, have control, which is the key factor of the equation. Still, the average user may or may not know how to exercise this control, so it is evident the issue extends beyond designers and developers and ventures into the realm of user interface and education.
-- Best regards, Michael Wilson
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