Improving User Experience Through Typography
I recently read an interesting article discussing the importance of typography and how it equates to customer satisfaction, retention and increased sales. Good typography brings order to the page and increases legibility, allowing people to process information faster. Here are a few tips they suggested and I will reinforce:
1. Watch Your Measure
Measure is the width of a sigle line of type. A longer line of type equals longer Measure. Many usability studies (most notably Jacob Neilson's research) have shown that body copy should be somewhere between 45-75 characters in length. This equates to approximately 500px on a computer screen. Additionally, your leading should increase with the length of your Measure. Leading is the vertical white space between lines of text. If you have a long measure you should have more leading. Likewise, if you have a small column if content you should have less leading.
2. Space Between and Around
It's not just about your text. Its about the space that surrounds it. The key is to fine balance that guides the eye from one element to the next. The most notable suggestion is to increase padding and margins around inline images to allow for a better flow of the content around images.
3. Don't Go Font Crazy
A good rule of thumb for any designer is: use no more than two font faces in your design. Two font faces can look very stylish. In most scenarios the header font would be different than the body copy font. Resist the temptation to go wild with fonts. Decorative fonts are best kept to headlines, but can still be difficult to read. Always keep the reader in mind with using decorative fonts. Also, regardless of the font you decide to use, make sure it is of readable size. Many designers make the mistake of using a tiny tiny font because they feel it makes the site look cleaner. Again, design is important, but readability and usability is the key to conversion and retention.
While these are basic recommendations they can go a long way towards cleaning up your site and making the site more usable for readers. Following these simple rules can definitely improve your readability, conversion rates and user retention. Hope this helps!
