From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from lists.gentoo.org ([140.105.134.102] helo=robin.gentoo.org) by nuthatch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1Ef47M-0006hk-CO for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Wed, 23 Nov 2005 23:33:37 +0000 Received: from robin.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.13.5/8.13.5) with SMTP id jANNXUXg002023; Wed, 23 Nov 2005 23:33:30 GMT Received: from zproxy.gmail.com (zproxy.gmail.com [64.233.162.207]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.13.5/8.13.5) with ESMTP id jANNXToX001889 for ; Wed, 23 Nov 2005 23:33:29 GMT Received: by zproxy.gmail.com with SMTP id z3so1324542nzf for ; Wed, 23 Nov 2005 15:33:28 -0800 (PST) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:references; b=eq/ZMJ+W/nAFRwHDwKIKksrQecL8B1GRts0nt3P8DjeBaUYzFjFNBj0W9E3fPQ6pJcecA5qZ9kJIUzMnLtKidC/N7+TvQai0PWWWb9KN/L3RvMrUWFNJOE21HSegP8OjJpYpcGpKgiSGCxrGWPViQWTJExpV9cdzLdBLiSSOnVY= Received: by 10.36.220.62 with SMTP id s62mr5364580nzg; Wed, 23 Nov 2005 15:33:28 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.36.157.9 with HTTP; Wed, 23 Nov 2005 15:33:28 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2005 18:33:28 -0500 From: Chris Case To: www-redesign@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [www-redesign] Update of http://wwwredesign.gentoo.org In-Reply-To: <200511231737.58986.pauldv@gentoo.org> Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: www-redesign@gentoo.org Reply-to: www-redesign@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----=_Part_3274_15536828.1132788808815" References: <001701c5f03b$a9ea52d0$6402a8c0@vega> <200511231737.58986.pauldv@gentoo.org> X-Archives-Salt: e578a5c4-c6b1-4f41-86df-f11f59d3ed2a X-Archives-Hash: 7fbb2fb7a66227d9a115d0a351a015b6 ------=_Part_3274_15536828.1132788808815 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline Well, I wanted to give some feedback from an interesting angle. I deal with a good number of visually impared people, including my father. I have been working on switching most of them over to linux, specifically gentoo. After sending both site to some, these are the problems we all agreed on: 1) Font Size. The default fontsize on the redesign site is too large. (It's unsable for m= e on a 1024x768 machine. I mean usability is kind of hard to define, but I assure you, that reading and navigating that page isn't fun. Yes, I can dro= p the size down in my browser... but I should not have to. If I do, it's a poorly designed site, IMHO.) Now, for my father, the lareg text size represents a new problem. He is legally blind, and uses a screen reader. Th= e large text size had no helpful value for him, and actually poses a problem for a screen reader. The text is just large enough that reading lines with the mouse becomes difficult, because there are less words per line, and it'= s rather a pain to move the mouse down every line of text, just to get the point of a paragraph. For people with screen readers, the more words on one line, the better. Chances are they only have limited sight anyway, so while they will be able to see the larger fonts marginally better, the ability to get more infromation with less work is much more desirable. ***(As a note, I strongly recomend that before this site goes live, someone downloads the demo of Window Eyes from http://www.gwmicro.com/ and goes ove= r the site with a fine toothed comb. You will be amazed how unusable a good deal of sites are for people with screen readers.)*** 2) Headline highlighting/background color This is something my father brought up to me. Looking at the main page of Aaron's site, you see that the news items are given a purple boarder, and purple text. He said that made a world of difference for him in finding the headlines for the news. He said that the current site he couldn't tell wher= e the headlines started. Also, the background color of the current site doesn't provide enough contrast for him to be able to discern The purple titles of the current site from the regular text. When I forced the background to be white, like aaron's, he could find it, but it wasn't as easy for him as finding the title and start of each article on aaron's site= . Also, We both agree that there should be two news itesm on the mian page be default, not one. Only having one doesn't give any indication to a visually impaired person that they should even look for more. If there's two, then it's understood that somewhere on the page will be an archive button; so perhaps they should take the time and effort to look for it. (Don't kid yourselves, when you're blind, and using that little voice from your computer to read the screen to you, you will not exort any extra effort to find the 'More News' button. Either you find it by shear accident, or you never see it at all.) 3) The Side Advertisements. These *need* to be greyed out, like on aaron's site. They are so large and colorful that any visually impared person will instantly move the mouse ove= r to them, and try to figure out what they are. My father was convinced they were some sort of navigation icons, and was getting very confused when they were taking him to non gentoo pages. I had ot explain to him what they were.. and that was within the first minute of visiting the page. I have sent the site to five other visually impared people; they ALL had the same problem. I tried sending Aaron's site to a few more I knew... no problem. Everyone who's tried both sites agree: they greyed out ads remove 90% of th= e confusion visually impared people have when visiting the site. This is a very important concern here. Windows doesn't lend itself to visually impared people the way linux does. While most visually impared people do run windows, because that's what they were taught, *most* make th= e switch to linux as soon as they find out there's a modern command line base= d OS out there that does most of what they need. Gentoo is one of the biggest distros out there, and it's one I recomend to any visually impared person a= s a linux distro to try. I hand them a modified live CD (added a screen reader) and let them play. In ten minutes most of them are hooked, and want to install it on thier own systems. The gentoo website is the major reason why most of them never do. I've tried to help mostof them out. but the old site, and the current one both are a nightmare for visually impared people... The new one's better, but need work. By far, aaron's reference site is the *BEST* site most of them have seen in a long time, although eve= n that isn't perfect. No site is, but I really think that some of those guidelines and decisions need rethought. I hope this feedback is helpful to you. Oh, as an after thought, I see a good deal of comments about "If you had a problem, why didn't you speak up a year ago?" I personally have kept quite because there wasn't much for me to see, until aaron posted that reference site. What I saw there was fine, and worked well. The current one now is rather broken from a visually impared person's standpoint. I couldn't have spoken up a year or so ago... I didn't have anything to test. --Chris -- Christopher S. Case SUNY Fredonia Computer Science / Computer Engineering macguyvok@gmail.com (509) 432 - 4725 (Cellphone) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "To err is human. To forgive, divine. To fix mistakes, now that's an Engineer." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------=_Part_3274_15536828.1132788808815 Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline Well, I wanted to give some feedback from an interesting angle. I deal with= a good number of visually impared people, including my father. I have been= working on switching most of them over to linux, specifically gentoo. Afte= r sending both site to some, these are the problems we all agreed on:

1) Font Size.

The default fontsize on the redesign site is t= oo large. (It's unsable for me on a 1024x768 machine. I mean usability is k= ind of hard to define, but I assure you, that reading and navigating that p= age isn't fun. Yes, I can drop the size down in my browser... but I should = not have to. If I do, it's a poorly designed site, IMHO.) Now, for my fathe= r, the lareg text size represents a new problem. He is legally blind, and u= ses a screen reader. The large text size had no helpful value for him, and = actually poses a problem for a screen reader. The text is just large enough= that reading lines with the mouse becomes difficult, because there are les= s words per line, and it's rather a pain to move the mouse down every line = of text, just to get the point of a paragraph. For people with screen reade= rs, the more words on one line, the better. Chances are they only have limi= ted sight anyway, so while they will be able to see the larger fonts margin= ally better, the ability to get more infromation with less work is much mor= e desirable.=20

***(As a note, I strongly recomend that before this site goes live,= someone downloads the demo of Window Eyes from http://www.gwmicro.com/ and goes over the site with a fine too= thed comb. You will be amazed how unusable a good deal of sites are for peo= ple with screen readers.)***

2) Headline highlighting/background color

This is something = my father brought up to me. Looking at the main page of Aaron's site, you s= ee that the news items are given a purple boarder, and purple text. He said= that made a world of difference for him in finding the headlines for the n= ews. He said that the current site he couldn't tell where the headlines sta= rted. Also, the background color of the current site doesn't provide enough= contrast for him to be able to discern The purple titles of the current si= te from the regular text. When I forced the background to be white, like aa= ron's, he could find it, but it wasn't as easy for him as finding the title= and start of each article on aaron's site. Also, We both agree that there = should be two news itesm on the mian page be default, not one. Only having = one doesn't give any indication to a visually impaired person that they sho= uld even look for more. If there's two, then it's understood that somewhere= on the page will be an archive button; so perhaps they should take the tim= e and effort to look for it. (Don't kid yourselves, when you're blind, and = using that little voice from your computer to read the screen to you, you w= ill not exort any extra effort to find the 'More News' button. Either you f= ind it by shear accident, or you never see it at all.)

3) The Side Advertisements.

These *need* to be greyed out, l= ike on aaron's site. They are so large and colorful that any visually impar= ed person will instantly move the mouse over to them, and try to figure out= what they are. My father was convinced they were some sort of navigation i= cons, and was getting very confused when they were taking him to non gentoo= pages.  I had ot explain to him what they were.. and that was within = the first minute of visiting the page. I have sent the site to five other v= isually impared people; they ALL had the same problem. I tried sending Aaro= n's site to a few more I knew... no problem. Everyone who's tried both site= s agree: they greyed out ads remove 90% of the confusion visually impared p= eople have when visiting the site.=20

This is a very important concern here. Windows doesn't lend itself = to visually impared people the way linux does. While most visually impared = people do run windows, because that's what they were taught, *most* make th= e switch to linux as soon as they find out there's a modern command line ba= sed OS out there that does most of what they need. Gentoo is one of the big= gest distros out there, and it's one I recomend to any visually impared per= son as a linux distro to try. I hand them a modified live CD (added a scree= n reader) and let them play. In ten minutes most of them are hooked, and wa= nt to install it on thier own systems. The gentoo website is the major reas= on why most of them never do. I've tried to help mostof them out. but the o= ld site, and the current one both are a nightmare for visually impared peop= le... The new one's better, but need work. By far, aaron's reference site i= s the *BEST* site most of them have seen in a long time, although even that= isn't perfect. No site is, but I really think that some of those guideline= s and decisions need rethought.

I hope this feedback is helpful to you.

Oh, as an after thou= ght, I see a good deal of comments about "If you had a problem, why di= dn't you speak up a year ago?" I personally have kept quite because th= ere wasn't much for me to see, until aaron posted that reference site. What= I saw there was fine, and worked well. The current one now is rather broke= n from a visually impared person's standpoint. I couldn't have spoken up a = year or so ago... I didn't have anything to test.

--Chris
--

Christopher S. Case
SUNY Fre= donia
Computer Science / Computer Engineering
macguyvok@gmail.com
(509) 432 - 4725 (Cellphone)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~= ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"To err is human. To forgive, divine.
To fix mistakes, now that= 's an Engineer."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------=_Part_3274_15536828.1132788808815-- -- www-redesign@gentoo.org mailing list