My feelings on females who play video games are pretty clear by now: don’t turn it into a support group, just enjoy what you do. Although I’ve noticed for too long that girls/woman wouldn’t do this if the males wouldn’t have given them something to latch onto.

Recently in a class of mine there was an assignment that needed to be critiqued by fellow classmates. Sounds fine and easy, until a certain student started to gain attention and everyone can’t wait to grade hers - just because she’s a girl.

I have no issues with anyone receiving attention in front of me, which is why I don’t put up a bio and such on here. I don’t like attention. Never have, never will. Although this particular case was one of the many that I’ve witnessed time after time. Her, mentioning she loved the genre of shooter games, the less ‘girly’ and casual taste, received immediate praise. Mind you, with only two females in the class, one being me, I found this incredibly disgusting (for the lack of a better word). I’ve managed to keep my mouth shut about my own tastes knowing that something of this nature was bound to happen.

And guys wonder why woman have this whole “girl power” aura about them when it comes to this subject. When you put them on a pedestal for being able to memorize button combinations or get a headshot you’re not equalizing the situation, you’re just helping the gender bias division. This is just one of the many reasons that I can’t stay in forums for too long. Because all of a sudden I’m being worshiped for knowing how to snipe someone in a game. If anything it’s an insult. It’s no different than someone patting my head for being able to say my name.

(Yes, those are some of my games up there. I was cleaning.)

Please visit my new affiliate Sugar Alley!

I’m late with the WordPress themes, I know. All in due time. Meanwhile here’s something that’ll hopefully help those in need of some web design guidance. This pretty much goes hand in hand with the designer tips written a couple of years back.

Font size - When visiting a slew of sites online I get baffled by the use of font size that’s found in certain places. Many of them of them offer a considerable amount of readable text, although there’s even a greater amount with small 10px fonts that are difficult to read. Designers may find this to be cleaner and sometimes (as I’ve heard this expression before) ‘cute’, but the reality is that it’s a nuisance to visitors. Even those with 20/20 vision will have a strained eyesight after a couple of minutes of reading. It’s recommended that legible fonts range from 11-12px. Larger fonts should be used in headers to attract attention, not the entire paragraph.

Blended/heavily contrasted color scheme - Everyone wants to design a site that’s pleasing to look at, although many times these attempts to make eye candy resolve in a distorted and uncomfortable experience for the viewer. Often times this can be caused by using colors that are too close to the color palette and others that are far too contrasting like the example given to the left. These elements, both in design and typography, are best to be avoided. Not only will it frustrate, but cause the visitor to lose interest in and even less likely to have them come back in the future.

Typography colors - This ties in both fonts and color scheme into one. Specify colors for certain elements such as bold, hyperlinks, and accronyms.  Using various colors throughout the site’s text can leave a visitor confused on whether to click or to hover of a set of words. For example, the standard of a hyperlink is to have an underline on it (like this site’s) although with the help of CSS it can be styled any which way, which is why its recommended to be more cautious at to not add many different colors.

Grammar - I understand that not everyone has a scholar vocabulary. I myself am far from achieving a ‘professor-like’ tone, although something as simple as spelling everyday common words incorrectly can cause aggravation and throw off your readers. Words such as “their”, “they’re” and “there” are very easy to mix up if one isn’t thinking about ‘proper’ wording, which is why it’s very important to know the difference between the words.

Excessive ads - These days practically anyone can make money off of their blog/site. It’s as simple as signing up for Google Ads and other paying services and watching it work its magic. Well, not literally. You still have to entice the reader to click on these ads for you, but placing them erratically all over your site to the point where it overlaps and distracts from your main content is uncalled for. Nobody wants to click on a link expecting to find something useful only to find an ad farm.

Side-note: I write this as an amateur designer, nothing else. I have roughly 6 years experience and through that time I’ve come to learn a lot. Most mistakes have been done by me personally, so I have written this with that in mind. If there’s mistakes please point them out, as I myself am learning new things every day.

I don’t like design trends. Not because I want to be an anti-conformist or because of some other self-absorbed reason. Not at all. My main gripe over it is how trends tend to stifle the imagination of designers, therefore restricting us to certain limits. I know that most just want to create what others already want (almost like a supply/demand tactic) or because the person simply likes the new trend, but if there’s no originality then how are you being creative in the first place? It’s only a mimic of what you just saw. I don’t mind using said trends as bases for the ’skeleton’ work of the design, even use as an inspiration, but put some effort into it.

What brought this on: I’m currently working on those new themes. Mainly WordPress themes. This was just a thought that hit me right now and felt the need to say… uh, type it.