CHAPTER 9 The Next Steps for Web Typography
So, can we measure if a design is successful? Dr. Kevin Larson of Mi-
crosoft and Dr. Rosalind Picard of MIT conducted research to explore the
effect of good typography. In a study “The Aesthetics of Reading”^36 (PDF)
they divided 20 participants into two groups. Each group had to read a
document, with one group receiving a well-typeset version, and the other
receiving a poorly typeset version. They conducted two studies to confirm
the results. Any ideas as to the outcome?
Well, here comes a little surprise. The reading time and comprehension
was the same in both groups. However, the group who read the well-type-
set version performed better when it came to relative subjective duration
— they underestimated the reading time more — and so were more capable
of completing creative tasks, such as the candle task^37 and the remote asso-
ciates task^38 (even though the results in the later test were not statistically
reliable). In plain English, good typography induces good mood.now that we are all friends...
You should be convinced by now that design is not just a solitary activi-
ty. We can best learn about a project’s needs if we go out, exchange ideas
and watch users on both sides of the content journey. Learn to see the big
picture and the decisions about technology, performance or type selection
will become much easier to make. Keep your eyes open and patterns will
start to emerge. Once you become comfortable in spotting them, you will
learn that there are oceans of details you can cover to improve typography.
So now let’s look at the more practical methods.PRaCTiCal DeTailS
To establish a design direction, we first need to evaluate the content. Apart from
reading the text, which should be the most obvious first step, we can gauge text36 http://affect.media.mit.edu/pdfs/05.larson-picard.pdf
37 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candle_problem
38 http://www.remote-associates-test.com/