Too tired today due to long MSN conversation chat. Just a small piece of note today.
It seems the larger font I changed is not a positive move. I saw people suggesting to change it back to original view. I think it reasonable. When professional look conflicts with readability and usability, I may need to choose the perfessional look. I am going to change back this week. Any comments?
Xujiahui Station Changed Face
As a side note, the Xujiahui Metro Station changed face these days. It added many new guidance board with vivid color and stick the direction signs onto the floor. It is great. Its usability is almost as good as the MRT in Hong Kong. The new direction system will be installed on all stations of Metro Line #1 soon.
The extension of Metro #1 is almost finished and I see the new line on the direction board of Xujiahui Station already. The new terminal station of Metro Line#1 will be Gongfu Xincun.
Bloggers Came Back
As the end of the long vacation, bloggers also returned to their blogging life. Claire completed her trip in Cambodia. Eric returned to Beijing from Hong Kong via Shanghai. Even Isaac started to post some entries after disappearing for about half month – I was wondering what happened to this hard core blogger. The blogging sphere becomes a little bit more interesting after the long vacation, although it is clear that more and more people have recovered from the blogging fever and go back to their lives, leaving the blog they just started untouched for more than one month…
I hate the lager font.
My preference is for your original font also, Jian Shuo. It seemed easier to read, and there’s more on the screen at one time without so much scrolling. Always good to give new things a try, though!
I agree with rachelmitchell and Carroll to go with the original font. The look and feel with the original font makes reading a pleasant experience.
Jian Shua, if you do change back to the original font, you might want to post somewhere in your blog showing people how to increase to a larger font for convenience reading. Here’s a tip for changing the text to a larger size font. Try holding down the control key (Ctrl), then hit the plus (+) key. This will increase the font size of the page. Again, hold down “Ctrl” key, and then hit “+” key.
Hope that will help.
I think this is not a big problem for you if you have time. Just let visitor choose their preference and use cookie to save it. Then show the font for visitor’s perference.
btw, i like the original size
Over the National Day vacation, I made a trip to Hengsha Island by taking the metro Line 1 to its current northern end-point (江湾镇), then busing north to Wusong Pier. The bus (116路) followed the path of the Line 1 extension so I was able to observe the construction, though only partially; the extension is pretty long! The elevated railway I saw was completed and test trains were sitting on the track, but the stations still have a ways to go before they can serve passengers.
I am no expert in fonts or appearance but I do feel that giving the reader some control over the font/size and maybe some other features of your home page might be a very welcome move. Some folks, like me approaching a certain age, may have difficulty in reading small fonts. Others may prefer a fast/direct layout. I would really like to see searchability added to phrases in comments and commenter’ names. A list of your favorite Shanghai links could be helpful, too.
If technically possible, it would be innovative to let the reader set and save a few preferences, as suggested by jack above.
Correction: I should have said “If technically possible and affordable, ….”
All of the light rail (轻轨) stations I stopped at today had updated signs, too. I took some pictures of the sign at my home station[1], Jinshajiang Road Station (金沙江路站): the Line 1 extension[2] and the new Line 5[3]. Any idea why Line 5 is considered an entirely new line, and not just a southern extension to Line 1?
[1] http://home.wangjianshuo.com/scripts/map/index.php?rx=1243&ry=2402&text=Micah+at+%E7%99%BD%E7%8E%89%E6%96%B0%E6%9D%91
[2] http://msittig.wubi.org/photos/2004/10/SiemensMC60/1017_121115.jpg
[3] http://msittig.wubi.org/photos/2004/10/SiemensMC60/1017_121151.jpg
Sorry to monopolize this post with my comments, but I have a correction and some additions to make.
First, in the first comment I made above, I assumed that what I had seen was the Line 1 extension. Wrong! What I described was the extension to the light rail Line 3 (Pearl Line). It’s not scheduled to be finished quite yet.
Otherwise, this morning I went down to the souther terminal station of Line 1, Xinzhuang Station. I was able to take some (low quality, cellphone) pictures of signage and facilities related to Line 5:
http://msittig.wubi.org/photos/2004/10/SiemensMC60/1025_075902.jpg
http://msittig.wubi.org/photos/2004/10/SiemensMC60/1025_080030.jpg
http://msittig.wubi.org/photos/2004/10/SiemensMC60/1025_080119.jpg
Xinzhuang Station itself is a sight to behold, I didn’t expect such an impressive structure “out in the boonies”. I guess south-western Shanghai (Minhang Development Area) is actually doing quite well.