Re: [Rhythmbox-devel] GUI mockup... let's get this sorted once and for all

[William Jon McCann <mccann jhu edu>]

Gareth Murphy wrote:
> On Wed, 2006-03-22 at 13:40 -0500, William Jon McCann wrote:
[snip]
> > I don't think this is true.  One obvious counter-example is any portable 
> > device.  Making assumptions about screen size and font size is generally 
> > not so good.  Here's one of my personal metrics: the UI should be 
> > perfectly usable with a 28 pt font.  This ensures that people with 
> > vision impairment can use it and it also kinda makes sure it can be used 
> > on small devices.
>
>
> This is where I have to stop agreeing. Virtually no laptops these days
> come with a screen size of under 1024x768. At 28pt on my 1280x1024 the
> whole desktop became unusable, nevermind just Rhythmbox. I feel that
> 16pt is a good judge for visually impaired users, maybe even one or two
> sizes more.
>
> Either way 100% of the people out there are never going to be happy with
> a single product, it's just a case of catering to the majority by
> default and giving the right amount of customisable options to keep as
> many of the other users as possible.

I guess i should have said 28pt font on a 1920x1200 display.  With a 
smaller display the necessary zoomed font size would be smaller too. 
But really the point is that it isn't catering to a minority it is just 
good design.  It makes you think in a different way.  In general, I 
think programmers and geeks tend to use smaller fonts then the general 
population [1] and it shows.  Anyway, just my personal quirk really but 
just passing it along.

Oh, and by portable devices I also meant things like the Nokia 770.

Jon

[1] With the possible exception of teenagers who I think tend to use 
small fonts too.