On Tables of Contents and Ill-Advised Design Trends

Publications seem to cohere around certain templates. Then something comes along—an innovation, a change in technology—and it’s all up for grabs. Everyone scrambles and experiments furiously, and then everyone settles on a new template…this is often done without any reference to the customers or audience…It’s often more a matter of editors and designers imitating each other…than it is of thinking clearly about how best to serve readers and subscribers.
— Annals of Illegibility 2: Table of Contents