And using an inner scrolling area for the content instead of the document scrolling area is very problematic for keyboard users, unless you focus the true scrollable pane on load, and ensure that any time the body becomes the active element, you change it back to the scrollable pane. This is fiddly to get right, and requires JavaScript; I should finish the blog post I started writing on the topic. I made sure we got it as right as possible for Fastmail’s webmail, but I don’t think I’ve ever encountered any other site using an inner scrolling area even trying to get it right.
As it is, keyboard users will have to press Tab seven times before the keyboard navigation keys (arrows, Space, Shift+Space, Page Up, Page Down, Home, End) work.
For this reason, I strongly recommend that websites (as distinct from web apps) avoid placing article content within a new scrolling area. Use the document scroll area.
Yes, I see that too much too, although in this case I just disabled CSS. (In other cases, I sometimes click with the mouse on the area I want to scroll and then use the arrows and page up and page down keys to scroll.)
> For this reason, I strongly recommend that websites (as distinct from web apps) avoid placing article content within a new scrolling area. Use the document scroll area.
I spent a couple of minutes staring at it, unsure if I liked it or not. I concluded that the retro styling is kinda cool, but they make me expect a text adventure or puzzle. Nice for a change. :)
This complaint is kind of a trope on Hacker News now -- which isn't to say that there aren't still sites using tiny gray fonts on light gray backgrounds, but off the top of my head I can't think of any sites that launched or were redesigned within the last... five or six years now, at least, that still follow that particular trend. Medium, for both better and worse, has led an awful lot of design since it exploded onto the scene, and as far as I know it's always had bigger-than-default body text that's near-black on a pure white background. WordPress's default theme going back at least to 2016 is the same way; ditto for Ghost; ditto for virtually every theme from Squarespace.
Again, I'm sure there are lots of sites still out there like this, but I just don't see them very often. My eyesight isn't top-notch anymore, but the only site that I routinely visit that I have to have set on a higher-than-default zoom to be able to read is (ahem) Hacker News, because it uses tiny black fonts on light gray backgrounds. (Except for the places it uses, uh, tiny gray fonts on light gray backgrounds.)
> the only site that I routinely visit that I have to have set on a higher-than-default zoom to be able to read is (ahem) Hacker News, because it uses tiny black fonts on light gray backgrounds. (Except for the places it uses, uh, tiny gray fonts on light gray backgrounds.)
Your whole comment is spot on, but this is particular funny because I pointed it out to someone the other day and instead of scrolling up to see for himself he just...chose not to believe it. [1]
SendGrid's website is entirely unusable without zooming; often the fonts render as less than a pixel wide at normal zoom. Combined with light gray on white color scheme it makes the site a headache to use.
More amusing was the advertised blogpost last time I logged in that said using a dark theme for your email promotions was modern and would attract more interaction.
Their front page doesn't look that bad to me, but as I poke through other pages, there's definitely a lot of text at "usually reserved for legal disclaimers" font size, isn't there?
I don't use Sendgrid, so I don't know what their admin panel is like. I recall that some of the worst remaining offenders in the "gray text on gray background" category are SaaS dashboards...
I prefer to just avoid CSS as much as possible. That way, it uses the user's settings in their browser in order to make it readable according to the user's preferences.
That's a laudable attitude in general. Problem is, most users are not aware that these preferences exist, nor do they care. Most usecases are covered by Ctrl+Mousewheel.
Not just internally. I remember the massive hype around this being the "next email." I excitedly got as many of my friends onto there as I could.
I can't really pinpoint any one thing. There really was a mass of mistakes that all lead to this imploding heavily. I seem to recall that the fate of GWT was intertwined heavily with it. Very heavyweight widgets to support the general idea of massive collaboration in real time.
I suspect the killer is that "real time" portion. People love to talk about that. Few actually want it. (Fewer still need it.)
Pretty sure the biggest mistake was the same as Google Plus': the invite system that artificially hampers growth.
Since these platforms need to capture an entire network of people at the same time if there is something preventing someone from bringing all their friends/collegues in at the same time then it is doomed to fail.
Yeah, this worked fine for Gmail's early years because you can talk to people on other email systems. But Google tried to apply the same system to both Wave and Plus where the exclusivity made them comparatively useless.
I think they've learned the lesson by now at least, since their latest communication systems (Duo and Allo) had open signups. If those two fail it'll be because they were pointless (from a user perspective) entries into a crowded market of established players who already had network effect lock-in working them.
More than just the invite, I think they really soured a larger portion of their market than they thought.
The impression seemed to be that they would kill buzz/reader/wave, and the folks would just naturally turn to what they then offered. The reality seemed as much that many of us were unwilling to try anything else from them until it was clear it was good and going to stick around.
I bought my aeropress and a hario pour over at the same time having never previously used either. I much prefer the coffee that comes out of the pour over for the same reason; it definitely makes a more tasteful coffee.
It seems odd to title them influencers based on that.