Comment by dbg31415 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dbg31415 | Hacker News Reader

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This is one of the hardest sites I’ve ever tried to read.

The pages are dense blocks of tiny gray serif text with default line height and almost no visual hierarchy. It feels like gray text on gray blobs. It is exhausting to scan and read.

In 2026, this should not be an issue. We have clear standards. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) exist for a reason. Basic accessibility best practices have been documented for years.

https://wave.webaim.org/report#/https://cia-factbook-archive...

The issues are not subtle. Small text, low contrast, and long unbroken paragraphs are not design preferences. They are barriers. They make the content harder to read for everyone, especially people with visual or cognitive challenges.

This is fixable. Increase the base font size. Improve contrast ratios. Add meaningful spacing. Use clear headings and structure. These are foundational usability principles.

Accessibility is not extra polish. It is baseline quality. Right now, the site is unnecessarily hard to read. That is a design problem, not a content problem.

Your points about accessibility are fair, and I agree that readability and contrast matter a lot.

That said, I had a different experience. I found the site readable and fairly easy to navigate once I understood the underlying structure of the data. The content is dense, but that seems inherent to the subject matter rather than purely a design issue. For me, it strikes a reasonable balance between overly sparse, scroll-heavy modern layouts and extremely compressed ones.

That doesn't mean improvements couldn't be made, especially around contrast, but I don't think the current design is unusable. It may simply work better for some reading styles than others.

Was originally just supposed to be a data archive/download place for the parsed data.Thought a website could help! Will look into the standards

Accessibility matters.

In 2026, tools like WAVE, Lighthouse, and a real screen reader should be part of any website design process. They catch issues early. A stitch in time saves nine.

I know you may not be a designer. That’s fine. Starting with a solid, off-the-shelf CSS framework can get you much closer to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) compliance from day one. It sets a baseline so you’re not reinventing solved problems.

Building from scratch is absolutely valid. It’s cool, even. But right now it reads less like an intentional design choice and more like missing fundamentals.

I’m not trying to be a dick, the project has potential! A few design improvements would make it usable for a lot more people.

Cheers!

Thanks! I am definitely not a front-end web designer lol, and I for sure don't want to limit people's access. I will look into the standards and see how best to implement them into the website :)

Thanks! Will look into it

Yeah. Please don't. This is such a breath of fresh air. Dense data should be presented like a book, not a pamphlet-like hyperlinked website.

I agree. I love the current design. Personally, it seems to be just perfect.

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