I’ve discovered yet another use for the Web Developer Toolbar; I can perform The Site Design Litmus Test, heretofore known as “Joe’s Razor” (named for no one in particular):
Open up a site you’ve done in Firefox, and take a look at it.
Now, open up the ‘Edit CSS’ sidebar and erase all of the CSS. The page will revert to it’s “standard HTML” look, if you’ve done your site to spec.
Then, type in one or two rules you think would improve legibility. I’d say no more than 10-15 lines, or 3 rules, whichever is less. I’ve found that this is usually something along the lines of this:
body{line-height: 1.8em;} img{margin: 8px; }
Now, take a look at your site. Ignore the overall look, and ask yourself this: Is it more readable this way, or less readable? If you answer less readable, then your site design sucks in some fundamental way.
I was forced to admit this for several of the sites I tried it with. I think that the problem is that most web designers start a design with the notion to “make it look cool”. We do some nifty operation in Photoshop, “Lorem ipsum” some text in there, and everyone agrees it looks cool, so we make it.
But if you really think about it, that “Lorem Ipsum” text that’s faked up in a Photoshop mock is the most important part of the final, real site, even though it’s a second-class citizen in the design process.
This seems to expose a fundamental flaw in the way most of us (myself included) approach design for the web.
If you’re a developer, apply “Joe’s Razor” to a site you’ve done. Do you pass? Do you think it matters if you don’t? Am I (as per usual) just a ranting idiot?