Have mercy on your Users!!

[LaRetta]

// RANT ...

I might have put this in Wants and Wishes; however, I decided Right Brain (User Interface) seemed more appropriate. I'll get to FileMaker directly about it.

I don't have the statistics but I would bet that a third of the world's population is over 35. And since those under (say) age 6 aren't going to be using business applications (our solutions, web etc), that again shifts the numbers. So a vast number of people USING our solutions will have decreased eyesight (for one reason or other; or just naturally).

And I'm tired of attempting to read web pages, forums, calculation boxes etc, that use ridiculously small fonts!! The percentage of Users I've spoken to (so far) say most webpages are difficult to read or 'straining' to them. I'm going to do a worldwide study on it!! Screw the pretty colors ... screw "my solution will do everything in the Universe for the User" phrases!! Because if the poor User must strain to SEE the darned data (which is, BTW, the REASON they are there), then we have failed them. And if a User strains their eyes or gets tired, they get grumpy, less productive, are prone to error, or simply dislike your program (even if they can't articulate quite why).

Don't follow our own dear sweet FileMaker on User-friendly system fonts either!!! On calc boxes, they should (at minimum) provide zoom or let their calc window resize action ACTUALLY resize it. Text should be easily readable to the majority of people. Be nice to your Users! Until technology eliminates the need to read ... up your font sizes a tad.

// END RANT

[Fenton]

Right on sister! (showing my age -) We on the Mac platform (CRTs anyway) have it even worse, as our default text size is automatically 20% smaller. I can rarely read text on most web sites without hitting the + key twice. Many of the computer sites I ready, such as MacSurfer, do it right; which is to NOT set a fixed size for fonts. Then I see it at the default I've chosen, in my browser preferences, which is Verdana 11. This is how the web was intended to work, and how it mostly was in the beginning.

But fancy-ass designers ($), working for anal-retentive businesses, were unhappy not having "control" over every aspect, so they begin hard-coding fonts, sizes, etc.. I believe they design it more like it would print than how it views best on the screen, which is dumb. Other factors, such as cramming as much stuff (mostly ads) on a page as possible also figure into the equation.

Even our beloved FMForums seems to moving in this direction, with this new engine. The text is now smaller, and a font like Arial or Helvetica or something. It's not Verdana (I don't think; hard to tell at that small size), except for this post box, which is still not hard-coded, unfortunately now twice as large as your text above in the online post. It is not pleasant.

If it's necessary for me to create my own css file I'll do so. I'm not sure exactly what/where to put it, nor how to override the post css; nor whether it can override hard-coded sizes.

Edited August 7, 2005 by Guest

[SlimJim]

Hey you two spring chickens I'm with you. There is an alternative which may not appeal but does the business with FMForums and that is reduce your screen resolution. I'm looking at this in 800x600 instead of the native 1024x768 of my 15inch LCD. It is annoying that I have to scroll more but at least I can read it without effort.

The second task after reducing resolution is to reclaim a bit of screen space from all those toolbars.

[LaRetta]

I might add that a grumpy, eye-strained User is less likely to stay on a website and BUY also.

Yep, Fenton! I use Verdana 11 also!! Verdana is [color:blue]far out (also showing my age )!!

L

[LaRetta]

My calc boxes are readable!!! Thank you SOOOOOOO much!!

This isn't workable in our business however, where we are all set to (and my solution is designed for) 1024 x 768 but it'll sure help me when designing or reading Forums!

I tried using Windows Accessibility stuff. Don't do it anyone ... it'll wonk your system up real good.

Bless you, SlimJim!!

L

[SlimJim]

Glad to see you like it. If you go down this road can I recommend a small free app called MultiRes which will switch resolution on the fly and is multi-monitor compliant. I have my browser set up to be started in a batch file. The first line changes the resolution to 800x600 the second starts the brower and waits until it is finished and then finally the resolution is restored.

C:Progra~1MultiResMultiRes.exe /1:800,600,-1"

start /w C:Progra~1MYweb4netMYweb4net.exe"

C:Progra~1MultiResMultiRes.exe /restore

Sorry folks, a bit off topic