Your readers will take the time to tell you that your blog is unreadable or leave altogether.
(Hint: Check the average length of visits on your because it’s highly unlikely new, and potentially loyal, readers will take the time to say, "Hey Joe (or Jane), I can’t read your website because XYZ hurts my eyes.")
You may want to rethink that light text on dark background color scheme, tiny font size, and your complete hatred of margins in the content.
(Quick Tip: A dark grey background with light grey text doesn’t hurt readability as much as white text on a black background.)
And now a tip for blog readers using Firefox; there is a wonderful add-on called Read Easily which allows you to completely disable the CSS styles for a particular website. I’ve used it more times than e-mails I’ve written saying "Hey Joe (or Jane), I can’t read your website because XYZ hurts my eyes."
The onus, however, still falls on the blog owner to fix the blog since this add-on does no good for those who may be using a different browser or loading up the blog in their feed reader.
Yes, readability is a number one priority. Luckily, with FunAdvice’s redesign, no one has complained. But reader feedback is very important.
# February 11th, 2008
Very true. Even devoted readers will almost never pass along comments. Following good usability practices is very important - especially when you are trying to gain readers. If you have tons of readers you can get away with being less usable (but in fact are likely to be more usable).
# March 23rd, 2008
I think most people are going to be scared of making a confrontation. On the internet it is pretty easy to just pick it up and go. It’s not like there is much holding them there. I agree that looking at the length of the visit time will give you a good indication of what is going on.
# May 7th, 2008