语言与文风2016backchannel.com
网络是如何变得难以阅读的
How the Web Became Unreadable
导读
这篇文章批评现代网页设计为了视觉效果牺牲可读性：浅灰小字、低对比度、花哨排版让正文难以阅读。对写作者来说，它提醒我们：内容呈现形式和文字本身一样重要，任何“设计感”都不该以读者读不下去为代价。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
正文对比度要足够，宁可朴素也不要浅灰字配浅灰底；可参考 #333 配白底这类“浅黑”方案。
- 02
层级要靠字号、字重和间距来建立，不要把重要文字压成小号浅色当作区分手段。
- 03
设计要在普通屏幕上也验证一遍，别只在视网膜屏上调出“精致”的低对比效果。
- 04
克制的界面往往更耐用：Craigslist、Reddit、Hacker News 的朴素排版证明了可用性优先的价值。
HN 评论精选
过度设计会毁掉原本可用的产品，朴素实用的界面反而更可靠。
设计师正在毁掉软件。iTunes、iOS 音乐应用、Google Maps 本来还算能用，却被反复迭代、风格化到让人抓狂。我认为设计在网页上已经像癌症一样扩散。真正管用的是 Craigslist、Reddit、Hacker News，以及设计怪咖出现之前的 Google Apps 界面。每次用到本来能用、如今被设计致死的东西，我都想揍一个潮人。
jonstokes查看英文原文
Designers are ruining software in general. iTunes, the iOS music app, and Google Maps are just a few pieces of software that started out relatively usable (if not exactly stable in the case of iTunes), and have been iterated and stylized to the point where I routinely get enraged by them. At least Google Maps has walked back that terrible accordion thing that literally drove me crazy. I basically think design is like a cancer on the web anymore. You know what works? Craiglist, that's what works. Reddit works. Hacker News works. The old, pre-design-goober Google Apps interface worked. I seriously want to punch a hipster every time I have to use an app that used to work and has now been designed to death.
文字不是纹理而是核心内容；层级不能靠牺牲对比度来实现，且设计不能只考虑视网膜屏。
很多设计师把文字当成一种纹理，而不是屏幕上最有价值的东西，于是把它做小、做浅。这是当下极简、排版化设计风潮的不幸后果：要让元素有区分，只能把对比度拉平；可如果所有文字都是纯黑，层级又没了。有经验的设计师知道怎么绕开，我不觉得这是长久问题。另外，视网膜屏幕影响很大，你可以做得更细腻，但很多设计师只按视网膜屏设计。印刷排版里小字号很多，因为印刷足够清晰；技术会解决大部分问题。
ThomPete查看英文原文
It’s true that many designers tend to look at text more like a texture. Instead of making it large and distinct they will make it small and light colored when it's in fact the only valuable thing on the screen. It's an unfortunate consequence of so much design today going minimal and more typographic, which makes it's hard to differentiate elements any other way than to start evening out the contrast. If everything that is text was just black you would loose the hierarchy. There er of course plenty of ways to get around it and most experienced designers know how to deal with it. I don't think it's going to be a lasting problem though. Also important to notice that retina screens make a big difference between what is readable and not. You can get away with much more finesse when you design for retina screens. And I think a lot of designers unfortunately use only that when they design. If you look at print typography you will find a lot of small text sizes because print is crisp enough to be readable. So technology will take care of most of it IMO.
可读性靠对比度管理，不必死守纯黑白；避免深灰配浅灰，可用微偏色增加对比。
虽然主观，但很多人觉得纯黑白看着不舒服，我更喜欢不用纯黑白的网站。清晰对比并不一定非得 #000/#FFF。最明显的改进是盯住对比度：文章提到用 #333 代替 #000，但那些不可读的样本都远没这么深，#333 在白底上基本算“浅黑”，问题不大。另一个技巧是只改变背景或文字其中之一；Google 和 Apple 都犯了深灰字配浅灰底的错。给视觉一个“端点”似乎能保住清晰度。最后可以选非纯灰的颜色：HN 的 244/244/235 背景略偏棕，比纯亮度暗示的对比更强。
Bartweiss查看英文原文
Subjective though it may be, there are a lot of people who find black-on-white unpleasant to look at. I greatly prefer sites that don't use it, regardless of what they do with font and size. This could just be a case of conflicting preferences, but I don't think it has to be. Clear contrasts are achievable without insisting on #000/#FFF web design. - The most obvious improvement is simply keeping an eye on contrast. The article mentions using #333 over #000, but none of the unreadable samples provided are anywhere near that dark. #333 is approximately "light black" to the eye, and I suspect would give little trouble on a white background. - Another trick is to vary one of background and text. Both Google and Apple violate this guideline by placing dark grey text on a light grey background. Again subjective, but offering a visual 'endpoint' seems to preserve clarity in a way that multiple shades of grey do not (perhaps it just encourages more careful design). - Finally, we can choose colors which are not strictly grey. The HN background is a rather usable 244/244/235 - not far outside of light grey, but tan enough to provide more contrast than the pure brightness would imply. The vote/name options here are emphatically grey-on-grey, but it is at least a design choice to minimize their distractingness.
装饰常是设计师证明价值的产物；好设计应说服客户接受可读性优先，而非追逐炫目。
很多问题源于设计师需要证明自己的价值。设计做得好时往往不被注意，页面读起来顺畅，客户反而觉得设计师没干什么。于是设计师（常在客户要求下）加不必要的装饰，显得自己提供了更多服务。开会时没人真读设计稿里的正文，大家只看整体“抓不抓眼球”。所以客户和设计师都有责任，但好设计师应该能说明为什么最炫最潮的选择不一定最好。另外推荐老书《新排版》，它很好地解释了排版的目标，以及如何在不牺牲可读性的前提下创新。
hurbledr查看英文原文
I think that a lot of it comes down to designers needing/wanting to justify their job. If a designer or typographer does good work, it goes largely unnoticed, since navigating the page and reading the text is easy and fluid. This can lead clients to believe that the designer is not doing much at all, when in fact they are doing their job exceptionally well. This leads to designers adding unnecessary ornamentation (often at the clients behest), just to make it seem as though they are providing more of a service. As others have pointed out, no one is sitting in meetings reading the boiler plate text on designs, they are just looking at the overall page to see if it 'pops' or whatever. So really, it's as much the clients fault as the designers, although a good designer should be able to communicate why the flashiest, most cutting edge choices are not always the best. Also, I'd like to recommend this book, The New Typography. It's an old book, but they do a really great job of explaining the goals of typography, and how one can be creative without sacrificing readability, etc. https://www.amazon.com/New-Typography-Weimar-Now-Criticism/dp/0520071476/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1476901379&sr=1-1&keywords=the+new+typography
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