Data

We do not bother with cookies or any similar technologies as our website overheads are (quite) low and we do not give the proverbial monkeys about data, analytics or other (pointless, in the grand scheme of life) quantifiable shiz. Anyway, your browser of choice no doubt makes its own visiting-website-efficiencies of which only you, its user, can do anything about so we’ll take all that as some kind of benefit to you.

We’re a bit like one of those li’l old shops, slightly tucked away from a high street (do they even exist anymore?!) that just does what it does, appreciates a bit of interest, credit, comment and conversation, quietly and considerately, away from daily life’s status- and attention-seeking world and aims to keep things ticking along calmly, steadily and without fuss or faff.

Main menu

Our main menu of navigation operates just like today’s website conventions but doesn’t squeeze its workings on top of a page’s content and nor require all sorts of coding trickery to enable a smooth-yet-different-every-website appearance.

It actually points to a contents page (like those handy things in analogue publications) that gives users some space to look and mull over the options and be a deliberate destination for a deliberate choice.

Possibly helpful for some peace of mind, a little calmness and web page history.

Always-there menus are overrated and invariably fiddly for their differences and dependent on the size and quality of the establishment you were at . . . just imagine if restaurant menus were always present while you conversed, ate and drank!

Somebody

Also, just because digital technology with its myriad ways of coding ‘magic’ can make things more convenient for users (sat-nav being a case in point) and the so-say power that gives them seems to actually lessen their involvement in understanding, choice and thoughtful critique, taking away conscious involvement and making them just (very likely) passive recipients of others’ attitudes and approaches.

A cog in an algorithm, self-perpetuating ‘results’ for someone else’s (no doubt, monetarily profitable) objective(s) can be awkward to meaningful existence, eh?

Text

It is left-aligned and not justified either. This aids readers in general and especially those managing dyslexia who can find the differing width of spacing between words – that justifying text presents – difficult to aid overall message comprehension, certainly when set at smaller sizes.

The inconsistent spacing between words created by justified text can be problematic for people with cognitive concerns such as Dyslexia.

MDN Web Docs

For the benefit of all readers, text is set at a comfortably readable size (1.4rem) and with leading (line-height for the digerati) generously set (to 1.75, a relational figure) to contribute to ease of eye-tracking and cognitive interpretation while reading.

[...] ensure that visually rendered text is presented in such a manner that it can be perceived without its layout interfering with its readability. People with some cognitive, language and learning disabilities and some low vision users cannot perceive the text and/or lose their reading place if the text is presented in a manner that is difficult for them to read.

W3C

If words need to be shown it is always a good idea to help the readers of them; if they don't really need to be seen or read but need to be present, consider exploring and changing why that's the case in the first place (and not just because of the legal fees involved).

With clarity comes better understanding, engagement and appreciation of many factors that you can then choose to champion, debate or even ignore with confidence and reason.

Quotes

Quotes are made clear and visually independent through use of a serif typeface to imply slight difference from the main copy that uses a sans-serif typeface.

They are also surrounded by a border, above and below to assist stand out from the main flow of words.

It's to help show some difference in the composer(s) of words and the point being referred to but they always sit within the article’s words as they go with the flow.

They are not repeated elsewhere within a page’s content just to look sort of separate in the layout, when generally with that approach content is just repeated in the article you’re reading anyway.

Asides

An aside of content is not imperative to the main flow of an article’s words but does add some additional flavour to its point(s) that doesn’t deserve to be part of its main flow.

However, here at Breort we probably put too many words and sentences within them and keep them within the main flow of article words to help preserve a clean layout and intent, along with access being easy as there’s no point putting asides off to one side (how might that then work on small, narrow screens?) given they are still somewhat informative to the proceedings and even if there’s only four or five words in them. Otherwise, why bother having them in the first place?

If you wish to read them, a deliberate action of choosing to open them for their detail needs to occur. That can be whilst reading the article’s main words or after the completion of those main words. Sometimes it isn’t right to just put them all at the end and sometimes, a convention (or two) is worth following, even if it has some tweaks to, we think, help improve user focus and intent.

Here’s one to show how we have them work on Breort . . .

It’s always a question: a question without question.

Isn’t it?

Links

Links are visually different to aid context of where they point, as all links aren’t created equal.

If a link is on the contents page it has a unique look to aid clarity and focus that uses shape and colours to assist focus of a link’s hierarchy and state of interaction.

If a link sits elsewhere on this website it will be set for one of two states: internal or external; internal for links to Breort content; external for links away from Breort content.

Both sets of links have an additional mark at their end, after the text, to aid the pointing metaphor of a link: internal links don’t go far, so use a chevron; external links do go far, so use an arrow.

Also, to aid a classic (and conventional) digital metaphor, our external links are coloured blue but in contrast, internal links are coloured red. These colour choices are also reflected, respectively, in the background colour of their focus (keyboard-use) states.

(Although, when it comes to main Breort links in, particularly, its main footer of pages, the colours in those keyboard-use states become standard yellow and black to aid visual clarity.)

Another thing

Aside from our homepage, links are always found near the bottom of our articles. Our thinking is that highlighting places to go during the main act is a surefire way to assist inattention and poor focus, even for short reads. Why not show associated links last and counter the need to always be ‘screaming and shouting’ about this, that or the next ‘this’ if only you’ve got ‘that’?

We think our calmer approach better enables the reader to finish one thing, mull it over a little, take a breath and then decide about where they choose to go next.

Just because technology can enable quicker access doesn’t necessarily make it beneficial or conducive to being calm and remaining steady in an everything-now-and-this-is-next world before you’ve really taken in what you’ve just taken in (and feeling like you’re in control, when you’re likely not).

Take your time, so someone (or something) else doesn’t.