I don't use Reader mode for readability, but to remove all the clutter on the page.
That means:
- Single-column layouts. Sidebars suck.
- No fixed-position elements. Especially not headers or footers, though fixed sidebars are also almost always a mistake. (There can be some benefit for reference / tools, but only about one time in a thousand that they're actually used.) On desktop, I disable all of these with either CSS (Stylish) or uMatrix element blocker. I've given up on any nuance here. If it's a choice of fixed header/footer or none at all, it's none at all.
- A static set of nav or informational links above or below the main article text is acceptable. It's present, but doesn't interfere with the reading flow.
- Put in a motherfucking scrollbar already.
What drives me insane: website with floating header and footer, and I read, then hit space to scroll down to the next "page", but it doesn't take into account what's hidden behind header and/or footer, so now I'm missing two lines, and have to grab mouse/arrow keys to scroll back up two lines. It just works and then you put in extra work to make it not work thank you very much arghhhhhh
I don't expect anyone to follow it 100%, but the gist is that the page layout shouldn't look too different from browser defaults or use advanced features.
You mean you want two scrollbars? One from the web page and one from the browser window. That seems like an odd choice.
Worse: the scrollbars which do exist are indicator-only, they cannot be used to actually navigate on the page.
On the four mobile devices I routinely have access to, none has an actual grabbable persistent scrollbar for navigation.
The fixed side bar on the "visiting" page is barely enough to fit on the display, and when I shrink the window (or increase the text enough), bottom items get cut off without recourse.
The banners on most pages are so big that I usually see only 1 line of an article, which is mildly annoying.
Note: disabling JS is a required part of making the web readable for me, and that's how I perfomed the review.
Stylus is a useful CSS manager.
Stylish is a piece of malware that spies on you.
