How not to design a site... !!

[aotagain]

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Is it just me or does Oakley.com require a magnifying glass to detect the grey text on a black background ? I only found one of the navigation menus by waving my little hand randomly across the screen, and my monitor is up pretty high on contrast etc.

Seems to be a fashion problem in general - these guys must be so up themselves with their brand and bs that they believe people will actually think its cool to have an invisible site

[warren_p]

Yeah I have found this with a few fashion sites recently and I have been put off promoting them, I don't think style over substance should spill over to the online promotion of the clothing

[scriptmonkey]

Is it just me or does Oakley.com require a magnifying glass to detect the grey text on a black background ?

Can't see anything wrong with the site, everything looks in order to me, all nav menus are clear and visible on all the pages I just looked at.

[IntroSites]

looks fine to me too

[aotagain]

Yeah I can actually see it. Its the effort involved that sucks.
I just don't think they test properly.
Rudy Project is the same. Baa, baa...

Just looked on around 6 different pcs / laptops and its OK on one of them.
On the rest you need to get up and peer at the screen.
The irony of a specs site being difficult to see is quite funny really.

Fortunately from an affiliate point of view, most of the time we can just deal with the retailers, not the original designer sites. The contrast with a clear site like RX Sport which I'm grabbing a few sunglasses from is stunning.

I sent one fashiony site an email a while ago and asked them to pass it on to marketing, not customer complaints cos I didn't want help or an apology.
You can guess the reply:
'Nobody else has complained'
'We're using the latest technology'
'Do you need to increase your text size on your PC' (ie. am I disabled and incompetent).

[scriptmonkey]

Is it just me or does Oakley.com require a magnifying glass to detect the grey text on a black background ?

Is it possible that it's just you? Thats a genuine, unloaded question

My eyes aren't the best in the world, yet, I have absolutely no problem with Oakley, or Rudy Project. I only have three computers, so was only able to look at 3 different monitors, but both sites look splendid to me on all 3 monitors, requiring no visual effort whatsoever.

[aotagain]

Mate up the road can't see it very well either - the small nav menus are very faint.
But next door can on their desktop - but their son can't on his laptop.

I reckon its a 'how you've set up your PC' issue - contrast etc.

I can adjust it so the small typeface is reasonably visible, but then every other site just glares out of the internet at me.

The thing I come back to is that if every other site is OK and I haven't got any weird set up here, then this is duplicated for a lot of people and if I were in those companies I would be worried about the number of times its wrong.

Lets face it, the faint grey small text on a black background is an old design no-no really because there isn't much built in tolerance for users to vary their monitor settings.

[Bobby09]

i do think its monitor set up more than anything, as i can see the grey text on black background fine but when it changes to a white writing on a grey background visibility becomes more difficult.

[dgoodchild]

Slightly off topic, but has anyone seen Brian May's sitemap ?

His site is BRIANMAY.COM || THE OFFICIAL BRIAN MAY WEB SITE - click on Site Guide. Prepare to wonder at something which can only be described as the exact opposite of a clear and simple site guide.

[scriptmonkey]

Must have been leaning over the designers shoulder, got hair in his eyes