I had a bit of a hard time trying to decide how to raise this question, so if there's a more appropriate option please forgive me and do tell me the proper way to discuss this. Also, though some may consider this a bug (I also would some time ago) since it's "missing documentation", I opted to post as a Feature Request since it only impacts choice of font version, not it's usability.
Going straight to the point: A choice is offered with zero data about pros and cons or trade-offs to be considered. I believe this could be easily amending by claridying: Is there any data on the impact of having a rounded "a" versus the regular "a"? What does it say? This is even more relevant in the off-chance that such data clearly evidences either option being superior to the other in any situation.
If there's no difference, or if there's not enough data about it, this information should be available, and if there are differences, those should be publicly available, and preferrably easy to find when the decision on using either or even both needs to be made (i.e. download page).
I'm not questioning the existence of an alternative, the more the merrier, and it's quite easy to see the relevance for designers. My issue is with there being absolutely zero information on pros and cons, trade-offs or whatever of either version. It can be pretty frustrating in a situation when either option is equally acceptable, even more so if the one making the decision doesn't have Dyslexia (but wants to maximize readability). Obviously it's equally important to mention data on differences between individuals or the lack of such data (i.e., children could find the rounded a easier while adults think it's harder or see no difference).
From an engineering standpoint, even a simple sentence stating that there's no data on this subject would be very helpful. This may or may not be common sense to dyslexic people or easy to guess for some, but a lot of people who care about dyslexic readers may be losing quite a bit of time trying to figure this out, especially non-dyslexic ones. In my case I spent quite a bit of time searching on both repos, plus the website, plus Google. And depending on the replies here (And how much time I'm able to spend on this) I may even decide to read articles on the matter since it picked my interest.
This could be easily fixed by adding some pointers, making adoption of OpenDyslexic easier and more straightforward. I think I've covered pretty much everything relevant and also how this is directly related to the purpose of OpenDyslexic, as in how much each version actually helps dyslexic people. Please do share any pointers and/or feedback you may have.
I had a bit of a hard time trying to decide how to raise this question, so if there's a more appropriate option please forgive me and do tell me the proper way to discuss this. Also, though some may consider this a bug (I also would some time ago) since it's "missing documentation", I opted to post as a Feature Request since it only impacts choice of font version, not it's usability.
Going straight to the point: A choice is offered with zero data about pros and cons or trade-offs to be considered. I believe this could be easily amending by claridying: Is there any data on the impact of having a rounded "a" versus the regular "a"? What does it say? This is even more relevant in the off-chance that such data clearly evidences either option being superior to the other in any situation.
If there's no difference, or if there's not enough data about it, this information should be available, and if there are differences, those should be publicly available, and preferrably easy to find when the decision on using either or even both needs to be made (i.e. download page).
I'm not questioning the existence of an alternative, the more the merrier, and it's quite easy to see the relevance for designers. My issue is with there being absolutely zero information on pros and cons, trade-offs or whatever of either version. It can be pretty frustrating in a situation when either option is equally acceptable, even more so if the one making the decision doesn't have Dyslexia (but wants to maximize readability). Obviously it's equally important to mention data on differences between individuals or the lack of such data (i.e., children could find the rounded a easier while adults think it's harder or see no difference).
From an engineering standpoint, even a simple sentence stating that there's no data on this subject would be very helpful. This may or may not be common sense to dyslexic people or easy to guess for some, but a lot of people who care about dyslexic readers may be losing quite a bit of time trying to figure this out, especially non-dyslexic ones. In my case I spent quite a bit of time searching on both repos, plus the website, plus Google. And depending on the replies here (And how much time I'm able to spend on this) I may even decide to read articles on the matter since it picked my interest.
This could be easily fixed by adding some pointers, making adoption of OpenDyslexic easier and more straightforward. I think I've covered pretty much everything relevant and also how this is directly related to the purpose of OpenDyslexic, as in how much each version actually helps dyslexic people. Please do share any pointers and/or feedback you may have.