Why aren't my customers reading the content on my web site?

... Well perhaps it's the miniscule font you're using.

I saw a funny poster advertising the Mainichi newspaper large print edition in the subway yesterday (see the photo in the Japanese blog post below). It says "Large type is easy to read" (in characters that gradually become harder and harder to make out).

Most newspaper web sites do a pretty good job of using legible text. (Large enough and well contrasted). Is it that hard to understand why this is important?

In a future blog post, I'm going to present some "day in the life" scenes from a person with crummy eyesight (me). Maybe it will be an "eye opener" for the 20/20 folks who design things that the rest of us can't use.

Comments

[Mike C]

Aside from websites, it amazes me that the manufacturers of food products often put the cooking instructions in a miniscule font that almost requires a magnifying glass to read. Particularly when we have an ageing population.
You're right to point out that most graphic designers are young. Ironically, some of the worst graphic design crimes in terms of legibility are committed in a British web design magazine called .Net!