The latest fad in blogs and help files features Microsoft newest (Office 2007) fonts and the use of a lot of color.
There’s only one problem. They are hard (i.e., next to impossible) to read. I once consulted and opthamologist about the use of color in presentations. He told me that while 15% of the population is color blind to some degree or another, if you used high contrast colors - e.g., black on white; black on yellow; white on dark blue (like the old WordPerfect DOS screens) you would be ok.
However, the newest fad seems to be to use a variety of pastels on white, which are LOW contrast colors (e.g., orange, lime green, etc.). I, and I’m sure many others, find these extremely difficult to read. In fact, on one web site I recently visited I found it so hard to focus that the only way to read something was to print a hard copy, and even that was difficult to read.
Given the notoriously short attention span of people who visit web sites, this is a sure way to drive people away from the web site. In addition, for help files, people using them are already seriously stressed, and you don’t want to add any more stress just to get them to find a solution. So take a test: which of the following is easiest to read.
The answer you want is buried deep in the registry.
The answer you want is buried deep in the registry.
The answer you want is buried deep in the registry.
The answer you want is buried deep in the registry.
The answer you want is buried deep in the registry.
The answer you want is buried deep in the registry.
The lime green and orange seem to be the current favorite colors on a number of sites and documentation I have seen. Go figure