What is the importance of Typography in web site design / Any case studies / report / analysis
Even your personal analysis and observation is also welcomed
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Christophe P.
Creative Director at Flying Crocodile
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Hi,
Here's an interesting article about that. it'll probably be a better analysis that the one i could give.
It's called 'webdesign is 95% typography'..and personaly i think it's quite true. Web designer, like me, need to improve that part of a website considering that people might want to read what you did. And on a SEO side everybody knows that it's all about content, so improving and optimizing typography optimizes readibility, accesibility so fo course design and SEO.
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Frank F.
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It is extremely important and something which latterly has become severely lacking if not downright bad. This is one of my pet peeves.
There seems to be a current but simply awful fad of:
- using overly-fancy font faces,
- using font sizes which are too small,
- using gray (or pastel) colored font instead of pure black-on-white (or pale yellow),
- using light-colored font on dark backgrounds (reverse font, often with the font color nowhere near light enough to allow for adequate contrast).
These all make the content more difficult to read, and they are contrary to all long-known knowledge about clear font visibility.
William F.
Experienced startup marketing and business development executive, market strategist, technologist, and investor
I recently had a client that we did a website for that was very unhappy with the overall look. By simply changing the font and adding some font treatment/typography, we completely changed the look and the client was extremely happy.
Based on this interaction, I think it's critically important, and something many of us in the graphic world tend to skip over.
Greg A. W.
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I mostly agree with the answer given by Frank. The important thing about typography in web site design is to leave it out! I.e. leave it to the browser user.
This is a _browser_ and _user_ issue, NOT a web site design issue!
The best you should ever do in a web site is to _suggest_ style, colour and size.
Remember, you have no idea at all what type of device and/or display the user might be using. They may be visually impaired and might be using special displays or even text-to-speech software. I want different font faces and sizes on my PDA or cell phone than I do on my laptop, and yet different settings again on my desk top screen and yet different settings on my living room TV screen.
The WWW is _not_ a print medium! The viewer's perception is not static across devices or even across people.
Dave M.
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Keep it simple, without overly fancy fonts that tend to distract from your product or service...
Typography is germane to any medium that presents text - the web no more or less so. Of course it brings a variety of new concerns but many of the traditional concerns of print typography are still present and valid. For example, a typographic function critical to the web is the establishment of importance hierarchies (e.g. headings); and general legibility concerns follow the same principles (size, contrast, typeface choice, etc). Microsoft, for all its faults and missteps, does have typographic expertise in house which you may be able to draw upon. The types of studies you mention have probably been made there.
Michael E.
Product Management & Business Development
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The only way you can guarantee that your typography will be maintained in the viewers browser is to make the type an image. But then it loses all the benefits of being text (compatiblity, searchability....).
Who are you developing your site for? the viewer or someone else (investor, you, grandma, ????).
Knowing who you're developing your site for, and why they are visiting your site in the first place, will help narrow this down.
Knowing what you want the viewer to do upon visiting your site will help even more.
Do you want them to read text, or do you want them to DO SOMETHING (e.g. call you, email you, etc.).
good luck.
Kristine S.
Founder/Consultant specializing in SEO, Social Media, Accessibility, Site Design, Mobile, HTML5 & Usability Las Vegas
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I come to this from two directions - one as a web designer and two as a PhD in Sociology. I say there are two aspects of typography, one which has been covered and one which has not. I agree with those here who say it is important because of its contribution to the design as a whole, but there is a second aspect and that is typography contains an emotional component. It symbolically conveys concepts such as trust, fun, sophistication, energy, etc etc. Typography to me is as important an element in design as photographs or imagery - it is just a much more subtle conveyer of the design and your image. Typography is cultural and by understanding this you can better represent your idea. Just my opinion of course.
One important thing which was mentioned just between the lines and you need to read the answers carefully here is the aspect of how fast and confortably is the user able to read the text.
Long time ago I passed the course which was dealing with the reading skills and getting the informations from test as fast as possible. One thing which matters most is the typography in this case. The letters shouldn't be to big, but not to small, the text and backgournd coller is also very important the light gray background and black text is most confportable for the eyes(white is two shiny and the eyes get tierd soon). So when designing the web page with lot of text, try to read it on the end of the they, if you are able to do that and your eyes doesn't get tiered then it's OK.
Links:
Clarification added October 27, 2008:
I add just link which can show you some ideas about what I said. If you will searche for fast (speed of) reading and typograhpy you will got definitly somemore good ideas.
Christophe Peyras linked a great article with a lot of links at the end and a follow up article, so I won't add any more there. But a while back I heard a little story that sums this up very well.
As a designer refines, and refines, and refines - doing everything he/she can to make things more usable/understandable/effective it's more likely that things will be removed than added. What's left has a little more power and beauty... Until one day you can't take anything more away! You may never get to that ultimate point with a design, but all that would be left would be the type and it's color.
Cheesy? Extremely. But I think that does a good job of showing the two most important things in design are type and color choices. Which, unfortunately, are probably the least thought about things with most designers.
Hope that helps,
Dan
