E2R

E2R -- not the name of some science fiction robot but a TLA that stands for Easy To Read. This is a wonderful manifesto from a Japanese design group called Information Architects. A few of the opening declarations:

The 100% Easy-2-Read Standard
Most websites are crammed with small text that is a pain to read. Why?

Don�t tell us busy pages look better
Crowded websites don�t look good, they look nasty.

Don�t tell us lots of links work better
Filling pages with stuff has never helped usability. It�s lazyness that makes you throw all kinds of stuff at us. We want you to think and preselect what is important. We don�t want to do your work.

Don�t tell us to adjust the font size
We don�t want to change our browser settings every time we visit a website!

Don�t tell us scrolling is bad
Because then all websites are bad. There is nothing wrong with scrolling. Nothing at all. Just as there is nothing wrong with flipping pages in books.

Don�t tell us text is not important
95% of what is commonly referred to as web design is typography.

Excellent advice for any designer, web or print. When I had my last business in Seattle, I moved from selling computers into being a service house and I did a lot of Desk Top Publishing for my clients. I have a background in traditional printing (I had two offset presses at the store) and it was amazing the work that you would see from someone who bought a copy of Pagemaker and hung out their shingle as a Desktop Publisher/Typographer. I spent a lot of time cleaning up some really messy documents.