Over-sized RSS Buttons: Fail.

May 6th, 2008

Things that are bizarrely out of proportion give me the weebie-jeebies1. As a kid, weird images would pop into my head as I was drifting off to sleep, like a massively over-sized tire, and I’d go all weebie-jeebie. Usually I could counteract this by shifting position - laying with my face on the pillow and my butt in the air - which generally normalized size and stopped the spin. I’m drawn to Salvador Dali’s ‘The Elephants’ because it induces a very similar effect, and also euphoria, making me secretly want to own a copy so I can careen by it in bliss.

But I digress.

I am writing this not out of a need to validate my phobias, but in an attempt to derail a current web trend in the form of OBNOXIOUSLY LARGE feed buttons. I’m talking the 128 x 128 sized behemoths, stuck on the page like a discarded dinosaur lozenge. Please stop doing this; your pages make me sick and I can’t surf the ‘net with my butt in the air. This isn’t McDonalds, we aren’t supersizing our feeds, and I don’t care what Fitt’s law2 states, you should keep your rss feed buttons to a reasonable size. Please.

{ fin }

  1. Weebie-jeebies is, as it sounds, a slight variation on ‘heebie jeebies’ but with the nuance of wobbliness and vertigo. []
  2. If we want to carry that one to it’s logical conclusion, just start throwing this bad boy on your site. []

§ 8 Responses to “Over-sized RSS Buttons: Fail.”

    • Name: bunnyhero
    • Date: May 7th, 2008
    • i wholeheartedly agree. i’ve been shopping around for wp themes, and saw a couple with that massive rss button. wtf?!

    • Name: pnts
    • Date: May 7th, 2008
    • I think WP themes might be the main source of the trend atm. I’ve seen an inordinate number sporting the things when perusing galleries…

    • Name: Christopher
    • Date: May 7th, 2008
    • There are only two images on my sidebar. A duck and a rss button. I felt being proportional would be out of sync because my other image isn’t really serving a purpose. I know its big. And it is following a trend, but not being in a trend is a trend in itself; especially when it comes to WordPress. Everyone wants to be different.
      Perhaps in my next tweak, I’ll change it. If I’m drunk enough to remember, but I stand by my single serving image.

    • Name: pnts
    • Date: May 9th, 2008
    • Chris-

      I wasn’t trying to pick on you specifically… I didn’t even realize you had the 128 x 128 image on your site. I get your updates by RSS, ironically enough. Good for you though, stand by your image (starts humming the tune to ‘Stand By Your Man’). I’ll keep reading through NetNewsWire…

    • Name: Pat
    • Date: May 18th, 2008
    • If you take a look at the article “45 More Excellent Blog Designs” on SmashingMagazine.com (http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/02/20/45-more-excellent-blog-designs/) you will see an image of my old blog design.

      The icon was 200px x 231px.

      My icon was part of the design (albeit not very well integrated into the design). I think the idea of constraining the RSS icon (or any design feature) to a certain size should be dictated by the design, not by trends or by a set standard.

      I agree, however, that designers need to stop sticking them “on the page like a discarded dinosaur lozenge.”

      Pat

    • Name: pnts
    • Date: May 18th, 2008
    • Pat, that’s a good point. The RSS button from your old design is huge, but next the very large text, it doesn’t feel wrong or out of balance. However, many of the buttons I see are swimming in the middle of 12px fonts and it just tips the balance too far. And then the weebie jeebies start.

    • Name: Hen
    • Date: June 18th, 2008
    • Your definitely right .
      If someone will want to use rss in your site , he will do it without press “big” button .

      P.S. : Please press my name and help me [ENTER the WEBSITE]

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