The Wikipedians tell me, however, that “sans serif fonts have become the de facto standard for body text on-screen.” Apparently, the serifs don’t read well on monitors. On television, they have been known to flicker, much like Digger’s eyes. However, the wisdom of the Wiki collective notwithstanding, my favorite Web sites tend toward serifs like Garamond and Times New Roman. Text issues aside, is it really necessary for ads to jump and blink and cavort? Must arrows swish by, balls bounce, and signs flash?
From a commercial standpoint, of course it is. Digger blinked - and I looked.
The New York Times recently featured a story on the website LowerMyBills and its notorious Web ads filled with the silhouettes of dancing cowboys. According to the company the ads work — and Web ad experts agree — despite numerous reader complaints across blogs and elsewhere online.
Web newspapers today do not constitute level playing fields. The non-commercial information, the news, and the story must compete with moving images like the broker and his snow umbrella or the eyes of a gremlin. Text simply cannot compete with colorful movement in one’s peripheral vision, no matter how well written. This means we are being cajoled, seduced, and driven against our will to look at things we did not click there to see.
What is the answer? Should news articles also move?
They’re working on that. More video clips and less text. The only problem is, I don’t want my newspaper stories to move. I want the stories to move me.
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