|
|
|
|
|
|
by bbx
4888 days ago
|
|
|
Oh, it's that Grey Period [1] all over again... I loved the previous design [2]. It only used 2 fonts (and default ones, for that matter): Georgia and Arial. But it didn't feel 'cheap'. The font-size, letter-spacing, small-caps, weight and style variations provided a versatile set of text layout. The spacing and colors were perfect too, and yielded a well-thought and pleasant visual hierarchy. It is one of the few websites I enjoyed reading directly from the website (instead of using Google Reader or Instapaper). I'm sure many hours of work are behind that new design. And maybe it's the same for any redesign: I'll get used to it. But I'm not thrilled. We'll see. [1]: http://jgthms.com/the-grey-period.html
[2]: http://alistapart.com/d//368/jsm.png |
|
|
Subtle visual effects like gradients and shadows and the use of different colours don't just make a site or UI look pretty, they also give cues about how it works. At the moment, it seems like everything is just another flat, grey rectangle, and we've reached the point where sometimes you literally can't tell whether something on the screen is a block quote, a button, the title of a drop down menu, or possibly even more than one thing arranged in a toolbar...
These new trends can't die fast enough, IMHO. Too many projects are sacrificing both usability and aesthetics just to be fashionable.