Comments on: Book Review: How Toyota Became #1 http://www.leanblog.org/2007/11/book-review-how-toyota-became-1/ Mark Graban's leanblog.org - Lean Healthcare, Lean Thinking, Lean Manufacturing, Toyota Production System Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:59:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Karen Wilhelm http://www.leanblog.org/2007/11/book-review-how-toyota-became-1/#comment-2787 Karen Wilhelm Sat, 17 Nov 2007 15:50:00 +0000 http://leanblog.bigbigdesign.net/2007/11/book-review-how-toyota-became-1/#comment-2787 Regarding the comments about typography. The style that the computer followed - right justification - or lining up the words so the right hand margin remains in a straight line - does indeed slow down reading. Besides generating silly hyphenation -toolch-ests for example, it places big spaces between words in some lines and crams together words in others. The narrower the columns, the worse the problem.<br/><br/>Tests of readability show that all these flaws slow down the eye, and the resulting cognitive interruptions make reading more difficult. The interruptions are waste generated only to please some book designer's uneducated preference. The designer forgets that reading is all about absorbing knowledge and information recorded in words. It's all about flow.<br/><br/>People who have studied readability have determined that "ragged right" margins are much easier to read. <br/><br/>Other common reading barriers - ill-chosen colors of type over background, unnecessary capitalization in titles and headlines, text written in all caps, and too much going on visually on a page. I'd submit that capitalizing words like kaizen, kanban, generic names of departments such as human resources, and even lean, interfere with understanding. Regarding the comments about typography. The style that the computer followed – right justification – or lining up the words so the right hand margin remains in a straight line – does indeed slow down reading. Besides generating silly hyphenation -toolch-ests for example, it places big spaces between words in some lines and crams together words in others. The narrower the columns, the worse the problem.

Tests of readability show that all these flaws slow down the eye, and the resulting cognitive interruptions make reading more difficult. The interruptions are waste generated only to please some book designer’s uneducated preference. The designer forgets that reading is all about absorbing knowledge and information recorded in words. It’s all about flow.

People who have studied readability have determined that “ragged right” margins are much easier to read.

Other common reading barriers – ill-chosen colors of type over background, unnecessary capitalization in titles and headlines, text written in all caps, and too much going on visually on a page. I’d submit that capitalizing words like kaizen, kanban, generic names of departments such as human resources, and even lean, interfere with understanding.

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]]> By: Rob http://www.leanblog.org/2007/11/book-review-how-toyota-became-1/#comment-2786 Rob Sat, 17 Nov 2007 09:31:00 +0000 http://leanblog.bigbigdesign.net/2007/11/book-review-how-toyota-became-1/#comment-2786 Mark - Why don't you post a blog article about your top 10 greatest Lean/Six Sigma books? I realize you need to have dirt under your fingernails. If you haven't experienced it, how do you know? But I for one would be interested in your recommendations!<br/><br/>Rob Mark – Why don’t you post a blog article about your top 10 greatest Lean/Six Sigma books? I realize you need to have dirt under your fingernails. If you haven’t experienced it, how do you know? But I for one would be interested in your recommendations!

Rob

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]]> By: Anonymous http://www.leanblog.org/2007/11/book-review-how-toyota-became-1/#comment-2785 Anonymous Fri, 16 Nov 2007 19:39:00 +0000 http://leanblog.bigbigdesign.net/2007/11/book-review-how-toyota-became-1/#comment-2785 HUH? Toyota is #1?? HUH? Toyota is #1??

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]]> By: Ralf Lippold http://www.leanblog.org/2007/11/book-review-how-toyota-became-1/#comment-2784 Ralf Lippold Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:44:00 +0000 http://leanblog.bigbigdesign.net/2007/11/book-review-how-toyota-became-1/#comment-2784 Hi Mark, <br/><br/>thanks to your mentioning of the book a couple of weeks ago I purchased it via Amazon and got it just this week.<br/><br/>I just have started it really yesterday and it directly grasps the reader's curiousity on what is so special about Toyota and how Lean came to be what it is today.<br/><br/>Cheers<br/><br/>Ralf Hi Mark,

thanks to your mentioning of the book a couple of weeks ago I purchased it via Amazon and got it just this week.

I just have started it really yesterday and it directly grasps the reader’s curiousity on what is so special about Toyota and how Lean came to be what it is today.

Cheers

Ralf

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