Part of the reason i haven't been posting as much as i'd like recently is that i'm kind of unhappy with the appearance of my blog - in particular the colour scheme and how narrow the column of text appears on the screen (this is especially noticeable on "widescreen" monitors).
A cursory look around suggests that the narrowness is something inherent to Blogger templates, which probably can't be fixed except by moving to a different blog hosting service, which i think would be a bit of a big task right now (copy and pasting all my posts over, trying to decide which older ones are worth preserving and which aren't, learning how to use features all over again...)
The colour scheme, however, is easy to change, but the question is... to what? One reason that i'm not happy with it as it is is that a couple of friends with visual impairments have told me that they find white text on a dark background difficult and "dazzling" to read, however i've heard the same said about the opposite colour scheme (dark text on light), and one reason i picked white-on-black was because i was told that was the *easiest* to read for people with some types of visual impairment... so i'm not quite sure what's best in accessibility terms (i'm guessing that it might well be different for different types of visual impairment - and that other impairments, eg. dyslexia or sensory integration difficulties might come into play)...
So... this is where i ask the people who read this blog: what do you think of its layout and colour scheme? If you would find it more attractive or more readable with a different one, what colours or other changes (eg font, text size, organisation of sidebars) would you prefer?
(I also want to somewhat re-arrange my link lists, maybe changing or combining some categories, maybe removing some blogs that haven't been posted to in a long time. If i don't link to you but you think i might want to, or would like me to, now's probably a good time to let me know of your (blog's) existence...)
Please respond even if you read this blog but don't often comment (or indeed have never commented), because i know there are a few people who read but who i haven't noticed commenting. (It would also be good to find out how many people, apart from the few who comment, actually do read this blog...)
Note: this doesn't mean that i will actually make these changes any time soon - it can take me a very long time to a) make these kind of decisions, and b) carry them out...
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
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13 comments:
i believe wordpress.com has an automatic old-post import feature :)
not to steal you over or anything
*grin*
the white words on black make it a little hard to focus on the words so i read your posts in a feed reader and then come over to leave comments.
it's interesting--- a lot of times i won't touch my blog b/c i can't stand looking at the layout, and then i put a new lay up and then i write 3 posts a day. amazing how much that can make a difference
either way, i love your blog and am thankful for your writing.
<3
I hate changes to website layouts. I'll still read your blog, but I'll wince every time I see it for awhile until I get used to it, no matter how good the change is.
But don't let that stop you - it's my issue, not yours.
Cripchick - I didn't know that about Wordpress. Thanks for the info - i will look into it...
Here's where i confess my total ignorance - what is a "feed reader", and how does my blog look in it?
What colour combination would you prefer over white on black?
And thanks for the compliment - really appreciated right now :)
Ettina - I have the EXACT same thing as you - had it when Amanda of Ballastexistenz changed her layout, and when cripchick did, and when Dave Hingsburger did (Questioning Transphobia changes so often that i stopped feeling it after the 3rd time or so ;) )... which is part of the reason why 've been *thinking* about changing my layout for so long, but haven't done it - because *I* would have a hard time getting used to my *own* changes, as much as anyone else...
Anyone else?
Like Ettina, I was getting used to this layout, but this blog is here to be read (Well, I think so ;) ) si it's better if visually impaired people find it legible... That's just my humble opinion =).
Good luck, and keep writing !
Phosphène
P-S : I have just noticed that I go to your blog very often and this is the first comment I leave. Sorry for this. You do a really good job, this blog is one of my favourites :) .
I'm not a regular reader, though I've read a small handful of your posts in the past.
I'm no expert in accessibility, but I do gather that white on black works better for some types of visual impairments than others ... or yellow on black ...
I once saw a web site for some organization of blind people and people with low vision that had buttons you could click depending on whether you wanted to see their page in black on white, black on yellow, white on black, or yellow on black. Unfortunately I can't remember what that organization was -- I really wish now that I had thought to bookmark it or something because this is at least the second time I've told someone about it.
I gather that people with low vision also appreciate being able to easily toggle the size of the text to a larger (or MUCH larger) size. Yes, there are ways to do it just within the browser itself (hit the control key with the + plus sign), but there is a limit to how much bigger that will take the text.
People who use screenreaders to access the web cannot use visual captchas. I do see the wheelchair symbol next to the captcha here, which I gather is supposed to mean that people can click on that to get an audio format. But, one, that still leaves out people who are both deaf and blind (or who have other combinations of disabilities such as blind plus audio processing disorder, or deaf plus dyslexia etc). Two, I gather that many of the people who could benefit from the audio alternative don't even realize that wheelchair symbol means anything for them. after all, that's for wheelchair riders, not for people with visual impairments.
Wordpress has software that does a pretty good job of filtering out most spam while letting through legit comments. Because of this, they are able to avoid captcha altogether. However, if there is an easy, low tech way that non-computer programmers can set up a wordpress blog so that readers themselves can toggle among different colors and sizes, I haven't found it yet.
I've no idea if you would have an interest in linking to my blog, We Can Do: it's on disability issues within the field of international development (poverty, water and sanitation, education, health, human rights, etc etc, in developing nations):
wecando.wordpress.com
And, side note: people who read without leaving comments seems to be the norm. I get several thousand readers each month, but very very few of them ever leave comments!
Andrea: well, yellow on black would be very difficult for *me* to read, so that's out (with bright colours like that, i tend to highlight the text to read it, making it usually white n dark blue). Black on a subdued kind of yellow (like a cream/parchment kind of colour) sounds like a possibility worth playing with, tho.
I don't know about toggling between colours or sizes of text - i don't think that's possible within Blogger (no idea about Wordpress)...
I didn't think my blog comment settings were using Captcha at all - at least, i don't see it, even when logged out... I will look at the settings tho, in case some people might be getting them (I am opposed to them for accessibility reasons - spam can just be deleted...)
Will have a look at your blog when i have a bit more time...
i'm glad to know about the layout changes. ettina thanks for posting that, i will have to keep those things more in mind when i do my layouts.
as far as feed readers--- cool way to keep track of all the blogs you follow. the one i use (through google) organizes blogs in folders so when i want to read folks' blogs, i can click on a specific folder (i.e. queer blogs, disability blogs, of like mind blogs, etc) and it will show me all the blogs that have been updated since then in a black and white text only format. much easier way to keep track of blogs. every blog has a feed that you can subscribe to. yours is:
http://biodiverseresistance.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
does that make sense? i think they're also called a RSS aggregator.
I prefer the white on black or black on medium grey, but that's cuz those combos are much easier for me to read than dark on whie / really light colors. Captcha's a pain in the ass, a lot of it is hard to distinguish. Since people have wildly different tolerances, best pick what works for you and your readers will work around it. I wish wordpress and blogger could include their own reader in the template where you can just highlight and click a button, would help a bit. Toggling the text isn't very good either, rather severe limitations on it and Google loathes it with Firefox's browser (dunno about Explorer, I refuse to use it), along with some blogs like Feministe.
I wear glasses but don't consider visual impairment a particular difficulty or one that usually causes me problems. Yet, the white type on black is hard for me, it starts to "dazzle" after a few paragraphs. I suppose I could switch to reading your posts in the feed reader as CripChick mentions, though I do like to stop by and feel like I'm sort of "visiting" whomever I take time to read.
On general changes to liven things up: I surely get bored with my own blog's look, but I don't find myself bored with others' blog layouts unless they're somehow unmanageable. I stop by for interesting content. Which is what I always find here, btw.
OK, i've checked and apparently my comment settings were using Captcha for non-logged-in commenters - despite the fact that i thought i had set them not to...
I have now changed it so that no one will see word verification - but please let me know whether it's actually changed, since the last time it seemingly automatically changed itself back...
(i changed it before the last 3 comments - cripchick, arrogantworm and Kay, did you see a captcha?)
cripchick - thanks for the info re feed readers :) Mine actually looks a lot like how my actual blog looks using the "No Page Style" option on Firefox (which also retains the comment links and does the same to the comment page) - so, if you (and Kay) are using Firefox, that could be an alternative option for blogs whose colour schemes you find difficult?
Still experimenting with other Blogger templates and colour schemes...
I didn't see a Captcha, no, and for that I'm incredibly greatfull =) I hate word verification, s'just this side of never that I get it right and Captcha sounds like it's haunted by an incomprehensible poltergeist. A mean one.
Nope, no Captcha.
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