Regarding a disappearing UI: I'm probably not the only one who had to highlight the text to read it. In case the author is here, please reconsider the offwhite-on-white scheme.

I upvoted you because you are obviously right but at the same time I’m once again astonished by how fascinated HN readers are by tangents about the linked website’s design. It just seems so irrelevant and pointless and has nothing to do with the content. It’s off topic and mean spirited, especially in a case like this where the author doesn’t give any advice. (It’s a bit different if the author writes about usability or design.) If you can’t read it don’t comment and don’t upvote.

One nice comment about it (like yours) might be ok but eight? Seriously?

> It’s off topic and mean spirited, especially in a case like this where the author doesn’t give any advice.

Okay. This is not me being mean. I can do better than that.

I couldn't read the text. I wrote what I did so that perhaps the author would know that a portion of his audience had a problem.

My advice is increase the contrast between the background color and text color. Better?

I didn't upvote you because in this specific case it is relevant. If someone's website exists to highlight design and the linked article is design-specific, I think it perfectly legitimate to point out that the design of the site, while arguably pretty, is a usability nightmare and this site fits in that description.

I'm sure it looks great on the designer's computer, but he needs to learn the painful lesson that not everyone is viewing his website on a monitor of the exact same resolution and gamma he is using(I would guess a Macbook of some type considing the gamma and resolution (laptopish) that would be required for the site to be at least somewhat reasonable to use). If he can't get that right, how can we be expected to listen to him on issues of design or UX even when that just involves him showing positive bias towards various existing designs?

If the link were to the blog of some programmer who was writing about some advanced algorithm that would be a totally different situation but it isn't. And in that case we'd probably point out he totally doesn't understand big-O notation (if he clearly didn't), regardless of how useful his algorithm actually is, for similar reasons.

I don’t see a reason to complain about it. Ignore and move on. Again, it’s not advice, it’s a neato visualization without any claim to expertise. It stands on its own.

What annoys me that this happens all the time. It’s annoying (if there is more than one comment about it) and just not relevant.

Perhaps also reconsider the wisdom of deliberately slashing 19% off the user's preferred font-size (css font-size is set to 0.81em).

Well, readability bookmarklet to the rescue...

Readability bookmarklet, for those who haven't heard of it before: https://www.readability.com/bookmarklets/

Actually that's not it, I don't think. WTF arc90 got rid of the old readability bookmark; I don't want to sign up for anything.

Here's the old readability JS. (bookmark it)

  javascript:(function(){readConvertLinksToFootnotes=false;readStyle='style-newspaper';readSize='size-medium';readMargin='margin-wide';_readability_script=document.createElement('script');_readability_script.type='text/javascript';_readability_script.src='http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/js/readability.js?x='+(Math.random());document.documentElement.appendChild(_readability_script);_readability_css=document.createElement('link');_readability_css.rel='stylesheet';_readability_css.href='http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/css/readability.css';_readability_css.type='text/css';_readability_css.media='all';document.documentElement.appendChild(_readability_css);_readability_print_css=document.createElement('link');_readability_print_css.rel='stylesheet';_readability_print_css.href='http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/css/readability-print.css';_readability_print_css.media='print';_readability_print_css.type='text/css';document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(_readability_print_css);})();

I was expecting a large background image to load because the text colour seemed so inappropriate to the actual background.

I think it's even worse than grey-on-black, which is an achievement of sorts.

I didn't even read this article, too much effort. I don't have perfect eyesight and am too lazy to look for the usability bookmarklet (its bookmarked somewhere.. but...)

You have a heart of gold, for actually taking the time to highlight it and not leave the page.

All that tumblr garbage at the bottom of the page could also use some selective disappearing...

+1

I for one cant take UI advice from anyone who fails the basic contrast ratio test.

It’s not advice.

No. It's finger-smears on a screen.

Are you just saying the contrast ratio is bad or is there a specific rule of thumb for contrast? The text isn't what I would call 'off-white', it's about a 50% gray. Half of max contrast looks fine on my screen, is it calibrated strangely? How much contrast should there be?

Thanks for visiting my site and for all the comments and suggestions. I don't take criticism personally, so I appreciate the honest feedback. I think the contrast probably was a bit light, so I tried to tweak it a bit without losing the spirit of the site. To address a couple points:

Gojomo - I was thinking the same thing about there being an app running in the background that records taps and swipes. That would be pretty cool.

Pyre - This study wasn't meant to be more of a brief survey than a comprehensive study. The Safari image was just light browsing and no typing. If you use any two apps long enough and the smudges they leave behind will look similar, so I limited the amount of time I used each app. I would like to pursue this further and dig a little deeper though, and a few people have suggested other apps to try.

I wonder how this compares with mouse actions/movement.

Beautiful idea, and well executed.

Yeah, I've been cleaning the fingerprint marks off my iPad for months and never thought to look for patterns. What an interesting study it makes!

In terms of other apps, Cut the Rope would probably have some interesting smudge marks, depending on which levels you play.

Not really comprehensive. The Safari one doesn't look like he used the touch keyboard at all. The usage would be different if he were using more interactive sites (forums, email form, etc).

Anyone can explain the video one? Why those particular areas?

To go to full-screen mode and exit?

Is this Video app you're talking about? Video app launches the video in full screen and there's no way to exit unless you stop the video.

I just look at my iPad again and the top area seems to be the play button. Still thinking about the middle one.

You can double tap to zoom in (i.e. remove the black bars) anywhere on the screen.

Ahhhh. Thanks!

This phenomenon is actually a security problem. Reducing the search space for a password based on fingerprints on an iPhone/iPad could defeat a lot of security.

I wonder how hard it would be, on a jailbroken iOS or otherwise open device, to make a background app that records all touches in other apps and makes either a picture or high-speed animation from them.