Notes on web design

2025-04-11

You ever think about how yyyy-mm-dd is objectively the best date format? Anyway, this website now uses a serif font. I don't specify the font in the style tag, just font-family:serif. You could say I am now sans-sans-serif. I did this because I think it looks nice, but then I started wondering, why do I think it looks nice?

I think I have associated in my mind websites using serif fonts with non-commercial pages. It seems that sans-serif is considered sleek, modern, and professional. So seeing a site using a serif font means I am in for a good time. Further to this, I want to comment on my general preferences for web design. I like websites which look like mine. That is to say, predominantly text, black text on a white background or white text on a black background. As little css as is reasonable, and no javascript if at all possible. I hate animations in general across software. Even when I'm reading visual novels, I always set the text speed to maximum so the words show up instantly, most VNs default to having the words slowly appear in order as if they were being typed out. On my desktop I have no animations. Things should happen as soon as I press the button which makes them happen, not after I wait for an animation to play out. I refuse to wait the .5 seconds while some picom animation plays while resizing my tiled windows after I open a new terminal. Just show me the thing as fast as possible please. Minimal text based websites like this one are my favourite, because there's nothing other than the content to distract me, or to distract the author. It gets out of my way and just works. When I come across a website with no or minimal styling, it makes me feel happy. Some call this "brutalist web design". I'm happy with that phrasing, although I also see it misapplied. The word "brutalist" in architecture comes from the French "béton brut", meaning "raw concrete". If "brut" in french means "raw", brutalist web design should also be "raw". Just like brutalist architecture lays bare the materials of construction as an aesthetic value in themselves, brutalist web design should disguise the underlying markup of the web as little as possible. Raw and unrefined html is beautiful. Brutalist architecture has a strong focus on geometric form and it's interactions with light. The best brutalist buildings make fascinating shapes and shades through carefully considered shadows and silhouette. In the same vein, a well constructed brutalist website should make use of form and structure to communicate meaning. People don't pay enough attention to the silhouette of their web pages.

I almost want to join the no css club, I really appreciate the aesthetic value of html brut. However, the lack of padding tends to make reading longer text posts a little unwieldy. The web was designed after all, for a world of 4:3 monitors, and 16:9 makes reading harder. I do, somewhere on the internet, use straight up .txt and nothing else for a particular site you will never know about. But that's not appropriate for here.

This website is as far as I know entirely 1 bit monochromatic. I do like the default blue of hyperlinks, but I'm not a fan of the purple for previously visited links. On top of that, I wanted to do something to make the site a little more my own, so I copied the black background link hovering from xxiivv lololol. I'm a monochrome type of guy. My desktop rice is almost entirely black, white and grey, with hints of red for important stuff. It's just easier on the eyes. I am someone who advocates for making blacks actually #000000 and whites actually #ffffff, none of this subtle off black or off white colouring garbage. I don't ever wanna see no bullshit like a #444444 for your text you hear me? I need contrast motherfucker! Same with colours. You know what's a really good colour? #0000ff. I love that pure blue. Same with #ff0000. Just give me the real thing, that's all I'm asking for. Greys are also good. Not enough grey websites.

I don't think every website should be a plain .txt file. I like css, and I like images. I like seeing creativity in web design, getting a sense for someone's personal aesthetic ideals in their webpages. I don't think every website should look exactly like mine. I do think they should look a bit like mine though. Brutalist web design derives form from function. It functions as a democratised ideal of website creation and ownership as something anyone can do. It reduces file sizes which is good for costs and good for the environment. Energy is actually a big deal. The internet is responsible for about as much carbon emissions as the aviation industry per year. Unlike the raw concrete of architectural brutalism, brutalist web design is about as low carbon as it's possible to be.

What I'm not such a fan of is "retro" style websites. I mean, I'll take them over modern bloated corpo javascript garbage any day of the week don't get me wrong. But I personally find some of this nostalgic design distracting, hard to read, and not always aesthetically appealing. Don't get me wrong, busy maximalist web design can be done well, I think cybergrunge.net looks and works great. But a lot of the time I think it's just nostalgia getting in the way. Once again I'd rather if web design would get out of my way and let me read.

So I have changed this font to serif, because it signals something comfier and handmade. I hope you like it.

P.S. Some people believe that sans-serif fonts are better for accessibility, or generally easier to read. Other people also believe the opposite. I did look into this briefly before making this change, I wouldn't want to harm the accessibility of this site. According to my research, it doesn't seem there's any evidence that either serif or sans-serif is significantly easier to read.