On 2007/09/05 19:28 (GMT+0100) Tony Crockford apparently typed: > On 5 Sep 2007, at 15:21, Felix Miata wrote:
>> Who made this a fact? Just because web designers, a group with the following >> characteristics (creating a bias among them) to distinguish it from an >> average member of the general public: >> 1-detail oriented (more comfortable than average with small things) >> 2-use large computer displays >> 3-leave their browsers set to the defaults that they believe most >> people use >> (untweaked to suit their own personal preferences) >> 4-young (have not yet reached age of deteriorating eyesight) >> think it so, doesn't make it so. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ >> Proof_by_assertion > right back at you. The point of pointing that page was the repetition factor, that people eventually believe as fact anything sufficiently repeated, whether proven true or otherwise. In web development circles, "the defaults are too big" is a mantra that is not even close to a proven fact in the entire universe of web users and would be web users who don't use the web because they can't easily enough deal with the tiny text on most web pages. > I'm 50 with imperfect vision, and still a web designer. (I do have a > big screen with unchanged browser settings I'll grant you) Big screen is of no small consequence here. An average designer wouldn't intentionally continue to use a screen that's uncomfortably small. At some point ~6+hrs a day in front of it would force a correction that simply is not compelled among casual web users - either bigger screen, or different job. > A lot of the web designers I know are not young and most of them wear > glasses. Wearing glasses proves nothing. Some people who haven't even reached their teen years wear glasses. Even with glasses many over 40 have poor vision. How good the net corrected vision is is what matters. Elder simply means greater likelihood that corrected vision is poorer than average, and/or poorer than it used to be. > so proof by assertion works both ways. I was not asserting all or exclusive, only average. I'm sure a scientific poll on any general web development/design list would prove that the average of all such characteristics among participants would show they AVERAGE as indicated, NOT that all without exception are that way. FewER people with poor eyesight take jobs demanding detail work in front of computer screens. FewER people than average with full time jobs in front of computer screens. It's a job comfort thing. YoungER people as a group are more comfortable and more familiar with computers and thus more likely to employ them heavily in their occupation than older people. There's already proof in the results - the web is overwhelmed by sites that set fonts smaller than the defaults - and the consequence that normal web users don't like it. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/designmistakes.html -- "It yet remains a problem to be solved in human affairs, whether any free government can be permanent, where the public worship of God, and the support of religion, constitute no part of the policy or duty of the state in any assignable shape." Chief Justice Joseph Story Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 Felix Miata *** http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/ ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *******************************************************************
