Also known as “The Squint Test”.
Step 1: Squint.
Step 2: Step back from your monitor.
Step 3: Ask questions:
What one item is more visible than everything else? What gets lost? What looks the most clickable? Are the “chunks” and overall structure of the page discernible? Can you still tell what the site does?
Painter John Singer Sargent used this technique in the 19th century:
He would walk away from his easel to look at his painting from a distance and step back to the easel for each brush stroke that he added…If the whole painting is done while you are only one foot away, the perspective of the painting will often be distorted.
— Improve Your Art By Studying the Disciplines of John Singer Sargent
Instead of squinting I stand ten feet away from the monitor and walk back and forth to see how things resolve at different distances.
Can’t bear to tear your butt out of your Aeron? Then shrink and blur:
Can you tell what websites those are? What they do? Where the headlines are and what’s clickable?