I am in the midst of yet another web site redesign. I have been concerned about type size for the body and whether I should use the navigation links down the left or in a horizontal bar below the header. Naturally, I did a little research.
Checked out the web a bit and, of course, went to Jakob Nielsen's web site and also checked out the journals. Seems that my own observations are shared: type is often too small or doesn't have enough contrast against the background or both.
This is another place where the graphic designers have pushed "looking cool" over "ease of use." Nielsen suggests at least 10-pt and maybe 12 would be better for us aging boomers or for the folks who have their monitors set at a high resolution. Nielsen himself uses quite large -- even funkily large -- type on his web site.
A 2004 study in Human Factors found that 12 was better then 10, especially if there were a lot of links and other content on the page ("clutter"). The study also found that links were more quickly found when they were on the left and when there were fewer links and less overall clutter. So it seems that scrolling is apparently preferable to jamming a lot onto one screen. This also helps cut down on clutter. I think even Nielsen's page would benefit from fewer links. Also, the study found that changing type size alone did little to decrease search times.
So I think I will use a horizontal bar for the major links, use the left area for sublinks and comments, and put a "crumb trail" at the top of the main part of the page. Also, I am going to experiment with proportional type sizes so that the type will adjust to the individual user's settings.
Check out robertbohle.com by Jan 1.
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