[www.kde.org] [Bug 317553] www.kde.org webpages should not set font-size of unstyled body text and should comply with 100% Easy-2-Read Std

[Gérard Talbot]

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=317553

--- Comment #19 from Gérard Talbot <browserbugs at gtalbot.org> ---
(In reply to comment #14)
> Unless you come up with a sane patch that doesn't
> introduce more work or destroys the entire layout. 

The thing is we probably could be able to propose one that would honor most if
not all legibility and accessibility standards... but you already close this
bug as wontfix!

> > Most people who complain about too big fonts haven't personalized their
> > personal computing environment to match their own needs or preferences.

Most people complain a lot more often about frozen font size and small font
sizes, otherwise (because they don't know to whom to complain or it's a waste
of time) they are irritated, annoyed by small fonts.
"
Top 10 Web Design Mistakes of 2005
For this year's list of worst design mistakes, I decided to try something new:
I asked readers of my newsletter to nominate the usability problems they found
the most irritating. 
(...)
1. Legibility Problems 
Bad fonts won the vote by a landslide, getting almost twice as many votes as
the #2 mistake. About two-thirds of the voters complained about small font
sizes or frozen font sizes; about one-third complained about low contrast
between text and background. 
"
Top 10 Web Design Mistakes of 2005 
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/top-ten-web-design-mistakes-of-2005/

Vincent Flanders (in his Web Pages That Suck website) has a similar point of
view on this:
{
Don't use small text. Designers are also fond of using small text (especially
on Flash sites). Hey, we're all getting older and as I often say, "If people
can't see it, they will flee it."
}
Biggest Mistakes in Web Design 1995-2015
10. Forgetting the purpose of text.
http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/biggest-mistakes-in-web-design-1995-2015.html#10

Suggestion on how to help users set their preferred font size for unstyled body
text:
(old and outdated but a good example):
http://www.w3schools.com/largetext.htm


> If a
> user didn't set his/her environment, so be it. Actually, that is the
> majority of web users, and that is what you shouldn't forget in your design
> decisions.

For desktop PC, the browsers' default font-size for unstyled body text is 16px!
That is true, even in IE6 and IE7. It was and is true for all Firefox versions,
all Opera versions. Konqueror too: it is 12pt (equivalent to 16px).
On kde.org websites and kde.org webpages (KDE forums, KDE bugzilla), I am
"offered" less than 16px: unstyled body text is set to 10pt (13.33333px).


> There is also no good reason to keep fixed elements on very narrow
> viewports, which you have done in your example. 

If I understand you correctly: the very specific problem you mention can be
arranged with media queries.

> These designs are not just about
> accessibility, but about usability, aesthetics as well.
(...)
> KDE sites are supposed to look good for the majority of our users, and of
> course should be accessible as much as possible.

This bug report was not about aesthetics or good looks. Good looks and
aesthetics should be second to accessibility and legibility. 
The browser defaults for unstyled body text in all browsers (desktop PC) is
16px, not 13px. I can not increase font-size from 13px to 15px (by setting
minimal font-size to 15px) without losing accessibility to content (real
words).

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