Posted by Jonathan N. Little on 10/07/05 17:11

dorayme wrote:
>>From: hywel.jenkins@gmail.com
>>
>>rf wrote:
>>
>>>windandwaves wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>http://www.historymakers.co.nz
>>>
>>>That white on black is very hard to read. I had to significantly enlarge my
>>>font size.
>>
>>Is it harder to read that black on white?
>
>
> Yes. There is proof. There was a 1976 study done showing that
> reaction times to warnings in white on black were significantly
> slower than black on white. And RF and I and a lot of folk find
> it more difficult. I know it looks nice sometimes and I do it
> myself for menu items and other things. But when folk are
> expected to actually read a fair bit of text it is a very bad
> idea. Try to make it easy for users... it is our job to try to
> think nice design and easy for most people to use...

Without question, white on black is far more difficult to read, but
hopefully without starting a flame war here, let's consider the content
and intended audience here. A website for a television show,
entertainment industry. Yes, about history, but not an academic tome, or
mission-critical news, or dry engineering specification. A styling
choice with a 'fresh' look. I think he avoided the error many make when
using light on dark of using a serf or ornate font, nor did he
artificially constrain its size. Set the body to 100% and refrained from
absolutes in px so you can bump up the text size even in MSIE.

I will say though, you are pushing the limit with the home page on the
amount of text per page if you are going to go with white on black
theme. Breaking into columns with an ample cutter helps a lot to keep
legibility, which you did. Image and style integrate well I think.

One bit I do see as a problem, if you stay with the white on black
style, in your menus having the 'visited' links go charcoal grey does
make them very difficult to read, especial with such lightweight small
text. I would suggest either increase font size, or weight, or color to
contrast a bit more, or a combination of these to improve legibility.
Maybe use white for your normal color 'unvisited' links, a light gold on
hover akin to your 'main' graphic buttons and for 'visited' use the
light grey that you are now using for your 'unvisited' menu links now.

I do like you site, good thematic styling.

--
Take care,

Jonathan
-------------------
LITTLE WORKS STUDIO
http://www.LittleWorksStudio.com

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