Re: wichita state's usability resources (Re: Aside on Fonts)

Greg,

         Great site!! Thanks. I checked a few of their categories, but 
focused on their advice for making web pages for children (since I make a 
lot of pages for the kids), and found their observations consistent with 
what I've seen of the kids using the web during the past two years. I found 
it interesting that I'd learned to use the 14 point ariel for the pages and 
that is what they say is a preferred font to fifth graders. Must work with 
younger kids just as well.

         Look forward to your reply. I just gave up on my fourth attempt in 
five years to use outlook, and went back to Eudora.

                                         Anne

At 05:54 PM 7/27/01 -0400, gregory j. rosmaita wrote:
>aloha, y'all!
>
>On Fri, 27 Jul 2001, Kynn Bartlett wrote:
> > Has this URL (for a usability study on font readability) been passed
> > around yet?
> >
> > http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/3S/font.htm
>
>it is worth noting that the usability news is available in an "easy print"
>(or, from the URI, EZprint) version which uses (surprise! surprise!) a
>sans-serif font (arial)
>
>it is also worth noting that the EZprint version uses the deprecated,
>non-scaling, absolute presentational element FONT, rather than
>stylesheets, which would make me think twice about hiring wichita state's
>software usability research laboratory to perform a usability analysis on
>anything...
>
>and yet, since we are endlessly debating (a) if there really is a
>dichotomy/difference between usability and accessibility, and (b) if there
>is, where the dividing line can be drawn; i think it worth our collective
>while to investigate their "Optimal Web Design" resource, a set of
>criteria/guidelines/information/statistics located at:
>   <http://psychology.wichita.edu/optimalweb/>
>although i found that using the "print" version of the page easier and
>quicker going, once it loaded:
>   <http://psychology.wichita.edu/optimalweb/print.htm>
>so i'd recommend using the second URI, which again, i must say, gives
>me pause...
>
>choking down another spoonful of his own dogfood,
>gregory.
>
>PS: anne, i have a detailed response to your post (the first, i assume, in
>this sub-thread), but it is trapped on my win2k box by one of the 3
>instances of outlook that, for some ungodly reason, are attempting to run
>simultaneously on my box...  in any event, once i reboot and reconnect, i
>should be able to send it out...  i'm also currently processing this
>thread in reverse, so apologies if this has already been covered...
>-------------------------------------------------------------------
>CYNIC, n. A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are,
>not as they ought to be. Hence the custom among the Scythians of
>plucking out a cynic's eyes to improve his vision.
>                         -- Ambrose Bierce, _The Devil's Dictionary_
>-------------------------------------------------------------------
>Gregory J. Rosmaita, oedipus@hicom.net
>            Camera Obscura: http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/index.html
>-------------------------------------------------------------------

Anne Pemberton
apembert@erols.com

http://www.erols.com/stevepem
http://www.geocities.com/apembert45

Received on Saturday, 28 July 2001 07:45:24 UTC