If you look around at websites that are well-designed and are effective, you’ll see that the target audience of a website has a profound impact on the design of the site. Obviously, different audiences prefer different types of websites and they will also have different needs.
The term user-focused is commonly thrown around. In this article I’ll take a look at a number of different ways (in no particular order) that the audience of your site will affect they way it is designed. This is an attempt not to be all-inclusive, but rather to show just how many ways the audience of a site can impact its design.
1. Colors
Deciding on a color scheme is a huge step in the process of a design. The specific target audience of the site should be considered during this decision. Different audiences will sometimes have specific tastes in color. For example, you see a lot of web 2.0 sites that target the same audience using light pastel colors. Websites that focus on celebrity news/gossip often feature many bright colors. When children are the target audience, a lot of color will be used. In certain cultures and religions, specific colors can sometime create negative feelings or emotions. Whatever audience you are targeting, make an effort to find a color scheme that will be appreciated and considered to be attractive.
2. Page Load Speed
Different audiences will have varying speeds of internet connections. A high percentage of users today have high speed connections, especially if you are targeting a technologically savvy audience. However, don’t automatically assume that your audience will have a high speed connection. Websites that are bogged down with slow-loading elements are unlikely to be successful if the audience primarily consists of visitors with dial-up connections.
3. Images
The types of photographs and images that are used throughout a website should be appealing to the target audience. A site that targets photographers should obviously use very high quality photos in order to create a good impression. The people that are shown in photographs on a site are often chosen because they resemble someone that would be typical of the website’s audience.
4. Targeted Keywords and Phrases
Every well-built website should target specific words and phrases. The entire website may target similar phrases or each page may target its own set of words and phrases. Whatever the case, the target audience of the site and what they will search for should be the major deciding factor when choosing words and phrases to target.
5. Content
Obviously, the written content of a website should be influenced by the target audience. They type of content should be something that appeals to the audience (examples, the use of humor, news-related content, etc.) and the voice of the writing should also be consistent with the interests of readers. Additionally, the amount of content should also be influenced by the audience.
6. Level of Interaction
Different audiences will expect to be able to interact with a website in different ways. There are increasing numbers of internet users that appreciate being able to watch video on a site. Additionally, you may have an audience that will be eager to leave comments and feedback. Does your website allow visitors to interact in a way that will appeal to them?
7. Integration of Social Media
More and more websites are including integration of social media. This can mean anything from including a “Digg this” or a link to bookmark with del.icio.us, to a system for visitors to vote content up or down right on the site itself. Will your visitors be familiar with social media? If so, which social media sites are they most likely to use? Don’t forget about niche social media sites, which will obviously be influenced by the specific audience of the website.
8. Language
The terminology used on a website should always consider the audience. Are users going to be familiar with certain words, phrases, and acronyms? Jargon should be avoided unless the audience will clearly understand the meaning and appreciate the use of it. Additionally, a website should not use harsh words or vulgarity unless the audience will be ok with this type of language, as some visitors can be turned off.
9. Fonts
On some website the fonts and typography are clearly intended to appeal to a certain audience. For example, a site that is targeting young people that are interested in skateboarding, snowboarding, or other extreme sports may use a grunge-style font.
10. Styles
There are a number of different general styles of websites, and these are used to appeal to specific audiences. For example, a community site for designers may use a minimalist approach with a clean and crisp look. The website of a photographer will probably focus primarily on photos, graphics and color. The website of a musician will reflect the style of music that is played, and the style of the people that listen to the music. In all of these cases, the site is created in a way that will appeal to the typical user of that site.
11. Level of Accessibility
Designers should strive to make every website accessible, but sometimes decisions are made that will affect the level of accessibility of site. With some audiences this can be even more important. For example, if a high percentage of your visitors use dial-up connections, you will want to keep that in mind and create pages that will load as quickly as possible. A website that sells goods and services to handicapped individuals will obviously want to be as accessible as possible. This seems like a no-brainer, but I’ve actually spoken with non-profits that cater to handicapped people, and they’ve told me that their website isn’t accessible.
12. Advertisements on the Site
Many websites and blogs include advertisements in order to make some money. The specific products and services that are advertised on a site should be interesting and useful for as many visitors as possible. Visitors generally won’t mind seeing advertisements if they are well chosen and appealing to them, but if they are for completely irrelevant products and services they are much more likely to be a turn off. Well-targeted ads are best for the website owner, the visitors, and the advertisers.
13. Monetization Choices
Placing ads on a website isn’t the only option for making money with the site. Whatever method you choose, it should be something that your target audience will approve of. Monetization choices that don’t fit well with the audience will produce poor results and they will likely not be appreciated by visitors.
14. Width of the Design
One of the biggest headaches of web design is dealing with the different ways that visitors can see your site, and one of the factors is the screen resolution that they are using. Fortunately, programs like Google Analytics will help you to know this type of information about your visitors, and you can make decisions accordingly.
15. Outbound Links
What websites do you link to? Are those sites appropriate, interesting, and useful for your target audience? Outbound links will be the most effective if they provide some type of additional value for visitors.
16. Attention Grabbers
What you use to grab the visitors’ attention will depend on what audience you are targeting. Something that will interest one audience will do nothing for a different audience.
17. Subscription Options
If your website offers a subscription, be sure to give your visitors what they want. Technically savvy audiences are likely to prefer RSS subscriptions, but many non-technical visitors probably aren’t even aware of what RSS is, and they will prefer email subscriptions.
18. Affiliations
Does your website mention or list any affiliations? If so, these should mean something to your target audience. If you are targeting local visitors, displaying a membership in the local chamber of commerce may be a good idea.
19. Communication Options
Some audiences prefer to communicate in specific ways. Of course, publishing a phone number and providing an email address or a contact form are the traditional choices. How about social networks that target a young audience? Instant messaging may be a preferred method of contact. How about the drastic increase in microblogging services and networks? These clearly are not appealing to all audiences.
20. Call to Action
Most websites involve some call to action, whether it’s selling a product, asking for an email address, seeking RSS subscribers, clicking on ads, soliciting referrals (email addresses of friends), etc. The call to action should always consider the audience. Sites that target children and teens will usually be more successful if they are attempting to get clicks on ads as opposed to selling products. On the other hand, a different audience may be interested in providing an email address but not something else. The action that you expect from your visitors should partially depend on the characteristics of those visitors.
21. Mood of the site
Many websites have an overall mood that is apparent to visitors. This is a way of making your target audience feel at home and helping them to connect with your site. The mood of the site should accurately reflect the mood that you expect visitors to have and to associate with.
Conclusion:
All of the items listed above are affected by a website’s audience. Effective and successful websites will always have the user in mind when decisions are being made and when the site is being designed.
http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/design/audience-affects-design/
Tuesday 30 September 2008
When Legibility, Readability & Usability Intersect, Then We Reach Our Target Audience
by Suzanne Webb
Unless we move legibility, readability, and usability to the forefront of our design practices, we will unquestionably lose our audience.
If we want to reach our target audiences when presenting text-based information, we as content specialists (designers, programmers, writers, and project managers) need to constantly consider usability. "Usability is often measured by studying the design of the table of contents, index, headings and page layout as well as determining the appropriate technical level" (5) according to Laura Gurak; moreover, "for maximum usability we must write from the user's point of view" (42). To accomplish this, we must move these crucial concepts of legibility, readability, and usability to the forefront of our design practices else we will unquestionably lose our audience. Too often we seem to overshadow them with other "more serious" concerns when these are the serious concerns in terms of satisfying our users..
Strong Contrasts Grant Legibility
Legibility refers to how easy it is to recognize bursts of copy. Headlines, callouts, signs, buttons and the like all affect the legibility of a product. Robin Williams, author of The Non-Designer's Web Book, offers help to ensure legibility; use a strong contrast between the type and the background color. She suggests we use the standard of black-on-white for the highest contrast (214). A reverse type (white-on-black) while striking, may alienate older readers as their eyes are not as geared for lengthy reading in dimmer conditions as Kevin Connolly's research indicates. "A sixty-year-old retina only receives one-third as much light as its twenty-year-old counterpart" (Connolly Thesis). Connolly confers with Williams; "legibility is enhanced by high luminance and color contrast, larger targets, [and] increased...spacing" (Thesis).
Perceived Legibility and Font Choice
Looking past how legibility relates to contrast, psychology students in the Software Usability Research Lab (SURL) at Wichita State University conducted studies on the legibility of different typefaces; these studies did not produce scientific results, but participants perceived Courier, Verdana, Georgia, and Times as most legible. If perceived legibility works for the end-user, then it is our duty as the designer to adhere to their perceptions.
Can Users Read Page After Page of the Text?
The separation of legibility and readability is oft misunderstood. Williams says readability is how "easy it is to read a lot of text, extended text, pages and pages of text" (214). Connolly confers saying readability is also measured by reading rate and comprehension (Thesis). While many decisions directly affect the readability of a project, both type font choice and line length are at the forefront. Making a font choice is a complex issue. Serif? San Serif? Bold? Regular? 10-point? 14-point? More than likely, according to Robin Williams, in a long passage of text a serif typeface will be easier to read. The serifs help to guide the eyes along the line. Furthermore, the optimal type size is between ten- and fourteen-point for on-screen reading (214). And, while more users are attempting to read our texts on-screen, we must also address those who wish to print our information.
What is Suitable Word Choice?
Specific word choice too, affects readability. Agricultural Communications reports that the Rudolf Flesh formula should govern all typesetting decisions. This formula combines reading ease (readability) with human interest (usability). There are four main points: 1) The more syllables, the harder to read and understand; 2) The more words, the harder to read and understand; 3) The more words about people, the more interesting, and; 4) the more sentences addressed to an audience, the more interesting (Readability). Agricultural Communications' suggestions demonstrate that even when we present technical information to an audience, traditional Anglo-Saxon words instead of Latinate as well as concise wording will help to incorporate our end user into the work and give them a more enjoyable experience. This improves the readability and therefore the usability of our information.
What is Optimal Line Length?
A substantial share of readability is attained by employing an optimal line length. Some controversy exists. Williams states that shorter line lengths are better because the eyes can't follow as well across the whole screen (214). Susan Wheeler, author of The Visual Design Primer finds that "lines ... too short or too long disrupt the reader's rhythm" (46). Wheeler believes these disruptions are 100% preventable. "A long line causes doubling (rereading the same line) because the reader has trouble finding the start of the next line. A shorter line constantly sends the reader back to the left edge after only a few words, so a comfortable rhythm is never established" (46). Humanfactors.com compiled data from several studies and reported "users preferred" a four-inch line length. While users read faster at a longer line length, the "users tend to prefer four to five-inch-wide lines" (UI Design). Discovering what the users prefer is the important finding-the finding we developers must adhere to. It's not about the reading speed; it's about usability and that translates to user preference.
Positive User Opinion is the True Measure
In Web Design Concepts and Best Practices, Carolee Cameron defines usability as "the degree to which a web site is efficient and easy to use. Ease of use, efficiency of the design, visual consistency and a clear focus on meeting the needs of users are hallmarks of usability. A usable website should also be memorable, result in few errors, and provide a level of satisfaction for the user" (160). Cameron also stresses that usability "is as important to the site's owners as it is to its users. Web sites need to be efficient and easy to use or they will lose visitors, which could result in the loss of revenue. Visitors who experience the smallest degree of confusion or frustration while on a site will leave" (160). One of the ways to we developers and writers can ensure these things do not happen is to utilize focus groups and beta testing. Cameron believes that rules of thumb should include: "90% of users should be able to find the information they need in less than one minute. 90% of users should say they like the site and will return" (164). There is no substitute for the end-users' opinions and their interpretation of a product's performance.
Who Is Our Target Audience?
We designers must continue to ask, "Who is our target audience" and channel a majority of our efforts into reaching and pleasing that audience. We will reach them through our planning for who they are and only then through our design or our words. "The more precisely defined [our] target audience is the more efficiently and effectively [we] can present the information" (Williams 81). And, while each of these interrelated concepts - legibility, readability, and usability - is much of much broader scope than can be addressed in this particular paper, let's face it, only when our information is efficient and effective - is it then usable. By gaining a deeper understanding of these graphic design considerations along with constantly considering usability, we can enhance our audience's experience and keep them consuming our works.
To Ensure the End-User's Best Experience, Answer These 5 Questions:
1) How can I create contrast?
2) What font should I choose?
3) Can I use about a 5-inch line length?
4) Should I re-word anything? Is it difficult to understand? I know it, but will they understand it?
5) Employ a focus group or perform beta testing on a sampling of your future audience.
https://www.msu.edu/~webbsuza/atw/index.html
Unless we move legibility, readability, and usability to the forefront of our design practices, we will unquestionably lose our audience.
If we want to reach our target audiences when presenting text-based information, we as content specialists (designers, programmers, writers, and project managers) need to constantly consider usability. "Usability is often measured by studying the design of the table of contents, index, headings and page layout as well as determining the appropriate technical level" (5) according to Laura Gurak; moreover, "for maximum usability we must write from the user's point of view" (42). To accomplish this, we must move these crucial concepts of legibility, readability, and usability to the forefront of our design practices else we will unquestionably lose our audience. Too often we seem to overshadow them with other "more serious" concerns when these are the serious concerns in terms of satisfying our users..
Strong Contrasts Grant Legibility
Legibility refers to how easy it is to recognize bursts of copy. Headlines, callouts, signs, buttons and the like all affect the legibility of a product. Robin Williams, author of The Non-Designer's Web Book, offers help to ensure legibility; use a strong contrast between the type and the background color. She suggests we use the standard of black-on-white for the highest contrast (214). A reverse type (white-on-black) while striking, may alienate older readers as their eyes are not as geared for lengthy reading in dimmer conditions as Kevin Connolly's research indicates. "A sixty-year-old retina only receives one-third as much light as its twenty-year-old counterpart" (Connolly Thesis). Connolly confers with Williams; "legibility is enhanced by high luminance and color contrast, larger targets, [and] increased...spacing" (Thesis).
Perceived Legibility and Font Choice
Looking past how legibility relates to contrast, psychology students in the Software Usability Research Lab (SURL) at Wichita State University conducted studies on the legibility of different typefaces; these studies did not produce scientific results, but participants perceived Courier, Verdana, Georgia, and Times as most legible. If perceived legibility works for the end-user, then it is our duty as the designer to adhere to their perceptions.
Can Users Read Page After Page of the Text?
The separation of legibility and readability is oft misunderstood. Williams says readability is how "easy it is to read a lot of text, extended text, pages and pages of text" (214). Connolly confers saying readability is also measured by reading rate and comprehension (Thesis). While many decisions directly affect the readability of a project, both type font choice and line length are at the forefront. Making a font choice is a complex issue. Serif? San Serif? Bold? Regular? 10-point? 14-point? More than likely, according to Robin Williams, in a long passage of text a serif typeface will be easier to read. The serifs help to guide the eyes along the line. Furthermore, the optimal type size is between ten- and fourteen-point for on-screen reading (214). And, while more users are attempting to read our texts on-screen, we must also address those who wish to print our information.
What is Suitable Word Choice?
Specific word choice too, affects readability. Agricultural Communications reports that the Rudolf Flesh formula should govern all typesetting decisions. This formula combines reading ease (readability) with human interest (usability). There are four main points: 1) The more syllables, the harder to read and understand; 2) The more words, the harder to read and understand; 3) The more words about people, the more interesting, and; 4) the more sentences addressed to an audience, the more interesting (Readability). Agricultural Communications' suggestions demonstrate that even when we present technical information to an audience, traditional Anglo-Saxon words instead of Latinate as well as concise wording will help to incorporate our end user into the work and give them a more enjoyable experience. This improves the readability and therefore the usability of our information.
What is Optimal Line Length?
A substantial share of readability is attained by employing an optimal line length. Some controversy exists. Williams states that shorter line lengths are better because the eyes can't follow as well across the whole screen (214). Susan Wheeler, author of The Visual Design Primer finds that "lines ... too short or too long disrupt the reader's rhythm" (46). Wheeler believes these disruptions are 100% preventable. "A long line causes doubling (rereading the same line) because the reader has trouble finding the start of the next line. A shorter line constantly sends the reader back to the left edge after only a few words, so a comfortable rhythm is never established" (46). Humanfactors.com compiled data from several studies and reported "users preferred" a four-inch line length. While users read faster at a longer line length, the "users tend to prefer four to five-inch-wide lines" (UI Design). Discovering what the users prefer is the important finding-the finding we developers must adhere to. It's not about the reading speed; it's about usability and that translates to user preference.
Positive User Opinion is the True Measure
In Web Design Concepts and Best Practices, Carolee Cameron defines usability as "the degree to which a web site is efficient and easy to use. Ease of use, efficiency of the design, visual consistency and a clear focus on meeting the needs of users are hallmarks of usability. A usable website should also be memorable, result in few errors, and provide a level of satisfaction for the user" (160). Cameron also stresses that usability "is as important to the site's owners as it is to its users. Web sites need to be efficient and easy to use or they will lose visitors, which could result in the loss of revenue. Visitors who experience the smallest degree of confusion or frustration while on a site will leave" (160). One of the ways to we developers and writers can ensure these things do not happen is to utilize focus groups and beta testing. Cameron believes that rules of thumb should include: "90% of users should be able to find the information they need in less than one minute. 90% of users should say they like the site and will return" (164). There is no substitute for the end-users' opinions and their interpretation of a product's performance.
Who Is Our Target Audience?
We designers must continue to ask, "Who is our target audience" and channel a majority of our efforts into reaching and pleasing that audience. We will reach them through our planning for who they are and only then through our design or our words. "The more precisely defined [our] target audience is the more efficiently and effectively [we] can present the information" (Williams 81). And, while each of these interrelated concepts - legibility, readability, and usability - is much of much broader scope than can be addressed in this particular paper, let's face it, only when our information is efficient and effective - is it then usable. By gaining a deeper understanding of these graphic design considerations along with constantly considering usability, we can enhance our audience's experience and keep them consuming our works.
To Ensure the End-User's Best Experience, Answer These 5 Questions:
1) How can I create contrast?
2) What font should I choose?
3) Can I use about a 5-inch line length?
4) Should I re-word anything? Is it difficult to understand? I know it, but will they understand it?
5) Employ a focus group or perform beta testing on a sampling of your future audience.
https://www.msu.edu/~webbsuza/atw/index.html
The Secret Lives of Fonts
The Secret Lives of Fonts
Posted by Phil Renaud on March 12th, 2006.
Phil Renaud is a Canadian blog design and web design enthusiast, with a particular admiration for web standards and CSS innovation. Ruby on Rails, xhtml/css, ajax, and a whole lotta love.
http://philrenaud.com
I’m nearing the end of my sixth semester of university, and things are going pretty well: I’m clearing a decent grade point average, enjoying my major, and just having wrapped up my semester’s “essay alley”, wherein all my courses require a term paper or two, and getting my results back telling me that I’m doing much better than usual.
At first, I’m just relieved to be doing so well. Still, ever the skeptic, I start to wonder: what exactly am I doing differently now to be getting all these A-range paper grades all of the sudden?
I haven’t drastically changed the amount of effort I’m putting into my writing. I’m probably even spending less time with them now than I did earlier in my studies, and while I guess you could argue that I’m probably just being a great example of practice making perfect, I’ve got my doubts; I even used to take courses concentrating on writing better essays, and in the time surrounding that, my grades were pretty low.
Then it hits me: the only thing I’ve really changed since I’ve been getting these grades is…
my essay font.
Long story short, this throws me into something of a panic: I keep all my essays’ final copies in storage, so I go through every scholarly paper I’ve written for the past few years in hopes of garnering some sort of makeshift empirical results with regards to my essay styles. Here’s what I’m working with:
Total Number of Essays Written: 52.
Fonts Used: Georgia, Trebuchet MS, Times New Roman.
Let me explain what I found; I think the results might be a little bit surprising.
Times New Roman
Total Times New Roman styled essays: 11
Average Grade: A-
Everybody starts out using Times New Roman, I think. It’s the default in most text editors, and the natural tendency of first-year college students being lazy, it’s unlikely too many of them bothered messing around with the fonts until at least later in their studies. I was in the same boat. Anyway, the A- average is pretty close to where my GPA stands, and assuming that the professor marking the papers generally sees a few hundred in Times font every semester, I imagine he/she really just marked the paper on the basis of its integrity.
However, I don’t think I can say the same about the next two fonts…
Trebuchet MS
Total Trebuchet MS styled essays: 18
Average Grade: B-
Ouch! Nobody likes to see a B- on papers that they put serious effort into. Unfortunately, these guys made up more than a third of my total essay output.
So what gives? Was I just neglecting my papers around this time? Personal crises bogging me down? Partying a little too hard?
Actually, none of the above. I wrote most of these in second-third year, where I had a good bit more free time to study than usual, and as it turns out, I got some of my best overall marks. I checked my exam/non-essay grades from around that time, and they were through the roof! “A”-range grades on pretty much everything that didn’t give me the option of styling my font.
Well, before I start chanting “Academic Objectivity is a myth”, there’s still one more font to investigate
Georgia
Total Georgia styled essays: 23
Average Grade: A
Well, would you believe it? My essays written in Georgia did the best overall. This got me thinking as to why that might be: maybe fonts speak a lot louder than we think they do. Especially to a professor who has to wade through a collection of them; Times seems to be the norm, so it really doesn’t set off any subconcious triggers. Georgia is enough like Times to retain its academic feel, and is different enough to be something of a relief for the grader. Trebuchet seems to set off a negative trigger, maybe just based on the fact that it’s not as easy to read in print, maybe on the fact that it looks like something off a blog rather than an academic journal. Who knows.
So, what are you trying to say?
I want to say that serifs appeal to academics more than sans-serifs do. I even briefly hypothesized that potential students would be innately drawn towards a the site of a college with a serif font more than one with a sans-serif.
I didn’t go into this hoping to try and make any claims against academic integrity here; I can’t imagine this is something that a professor would do knowingly.
What I’m not opposed to saying, however, is that the style used in an essay certainly seems to influence grading tendencies, even if that is at an unconcious level. I think that it’s possible that a person sees a Serif font and thinks “proper, academic”, and sees a Sans font and thinks “focus is on the style, not the substance; must lack integrity”. Maybe.
But, it’s hard to deny this, evidenced over 52 papers. Within each of the three fonts I used, there wasn’t terribly much variance, either. It’s not like these were just written for one subject, either: a wide range of disciplines were included, from Philosophy to Economics to Marketting to Political Science to Computer Science, even having paper on Computational Neuromodelling thrown in there.
So, be mindful of your target audience when you’re marking up a document, whether it’s a university essay or a commercial website. You never know just how loudly a font speaks.
http://fadtastic.net/2006/03/12/the-secret-lives-of-fonts/
Posted by Phil Renaud on March 12th, 2006.
Phil Renaud is a Canadian blog design and web design enthusiast, with a particular admiration for web standards and CSS innovation. Ruby on Rails, xhtml/css, ajax, and a whole lotta love.
http://philrenaud.com
I’m nearing the end of my sixth semester of university, and things are going pretty well: I’m clearing a decent grade point average, enjoying my major, and just having wrapped up my semester’s “essay alley”, wherein all my courses require a term paper or two, and getting my results back telling me that I’m doing much better than usual.
At first, I’m just relieved to be doing so well. Still, ever the skeptic, I start to wonder: what exactly am I doing differently now to be getting all these A-range paper grades all of the sudden?
I haven’t drastically changed the amount of effort I’m putting into my writing. I’m probably even spending less time with them now than I did earlier in my studies, and while I guess you could argue that I’m probably just being a great example of practice making perfect, I’ve got my doubts; I even used to take courses concentrating on writing better essays, and in the time surrounding that, my grades were pretty low.
Then it hits me: the only thing I’ve really changed since I’ve been getting these grades is…
my essay font.
Long story short, this throws me into something of a panic: I keep all my essays’ final copies in storage, so I go through every scholarly paper I’ve written for the past few years in hopes of garnering some sort of makeshift empirical results with regards to my essay styles. Here’s what I’m working with:
Total Number of Essays Written: 52.
Fonts Used: Georgia, Trebuchet MS, Times New Roman.
Let me explain what I found; I think the results might be a little bit surprising.
Times New Roman
Total Times New Roman styled essays: 11
Average Grade: A-
Everybody starts out using Times New Roman, I think. It’s the default in most text editors, and the natural tendency of first-year college students being lazy, it’s unlikely too many of them bothered messing around with the fonts until at least later in their studies. I was in the same boat. Anyway, the A- average is pretty close to where my GPA stands, and assuming that the professor marking the papers generally sees a few hundred in Times font every semester, I imagine he/she really just marked the paper on the basis of its integrity.
However, I don’t think I can say the same about the next two fonts…
Trebuchet MS
Total Trebuchet MS styled essays: 18
Average Grade: B-
Ouch! Nobody likes to see a B- on papers that they put serious effort into. Unfortunately, these guys made up more than a third of my total essay output.
So what gives? Was I just neglecting my papers around this time? Personal crises bogging me down? Partying a little too hard?
Actually, none of the above. I wrote most of these in second-third year, where I had a good bit more free time to study than usual, and as it turns out, I got some of my best overall marks. I checked my exam/non-essay grades from around that time, and they were through the roof! “A”-range grades on pretty much everything that didn’t give me the option of styling my font.
Well, before I start chanting “Academic Objectivity is a myth”, there’s still one more font to investigate
Georgia
Total Georgia styled essays: 23
Average Grade: A
Well, would you believe it? My essays written in Georgia did the best overall. This got me thinking as to why that might be: maybe fonts speak a lot louder than we think they do. Especially to a professor who has to wade through a collection of them; Times seems to be the norm, so it really doesn’t set off any subconcious triggers. Georgia is enough like Times to retain its academic feel, and is different enough to be something of a relief for the grader. Trebuchet seems to set off a negative trigger, maybe just based on the fact that it’s not as easy to read in print, maybe on the fact that it looks like something off a blog rather than an academic journal. Who knows.
So, what are you trying to say?
I want to say that serifs appeal to academics more than sans-serifs do. I even briefly hypothesized that potential students would be innately drawn towards a the site of a college with a serif font more than one with a sans-serif.
I didn’t go into this hoping to try and make any claims against academic integrity here; I can’t imagine this is something that a professor would do knowingly.
What I’m not opposed to saying, however, is that the style used in an essay certainly seems to influence grading tendencies, even if that is at an unconcious level. I think that it’s possible that a person sees a Serif font and thinks “proper, academic”, and sees a Sans font and thinks “focus is on the style, not the substance; must lack integrity”. Maybe.
But, it’s hard to deny this, evidenced over 52 papers. Within each of the three fonts I used, there wasn’t terribly much variance, either. It’s not like these were just written for one subject, either: a wide range of disciplines were included, from Philosophy to Economics to Marketting to Political Science to Computer Science, even having paper on Computational Neuromodelling thrown in there.
So, be mindful of your target audience when you’re marking up a document, whether it’s a university essay or a commercial website. You never know just how loudly a font speaks.
http://fadtastic.net/2006/03/12/the-secret-lives-of-fonts/
Monday 15 September 2008
Design with Power Grids
Design with Power Grids
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Design theories are based solely upon opinions. If this were not the case, each publication would look like its counterparts. Imagine a world of look-alike magazines – “yuck” barely describes our disgust. Sadly, computer templates and business card mills are creating a homogeneous environment in the corporate world. We have are own philosophies, but still encourage experimentation. The last thing you want is a layout that look like our work.
Our philosophy is simple: start with the tried and true basics. In publication design, the most basic philosophy involves grids. This chapter discusses how using grids and modular design principles can make designing easier – while still allowing for creativity.
Simple and Friendly
In the past, publications featured dozens of fonts, various styles of art, and mixed column widths. Newspapers and magazines of the late 1960s and early 1970s look like a montage. It’s often hard to distinguish the important from the unimportant articles.
Thankfully, the 1980s introduced a period of organization. Maybe it was the rush to buy daily organizers. Designers realized that content had to be sorted and organized more clearly. The number of fonts was reduced, improving readability. Artwork was standardized in publications, with art guidelines adopted by publications.
Consider the design of today’s reference books, including this one. Chapters are short and divided using short, obvious headings. Locating information is aided further by an overview of the book’s organization, a table of contents, and a lengthy index. Ease of use takes precedence.
Consistency
Simplicity is wonderful, but consistency is just as important. All company documents should have common traits. Develop a consistent design for all documents. Clients should immediately recognize your company’s newsletters, letterhead, et cetera. Once you design a particular type of document, maintain the look.
Professional designers often find it difficult to avoid experimenting with each new document. You might experience the same urge. Fight the desire to continually improve documents. If you do find that a change will improve readability of documents, redesign everything that shares the trait you are changing.
For example, if you decide to change a business card or letterhead design, throw out of the older documents. You should never distribute more than one design. Changing designs leaves an impression of disorganization – far from the ideal image for a business.
Use, Reuse, and Use Again
The easiest way to ensure consistency is to use the same computerized layouts over and over again. Most software allows you to store basic templates to reuse. These templates store information about various layout elements and fonts.
If the software you use does not save templates, store several copies of generic layouts. These layouts should also be backed-up to diskette, tape, or removable cartridge. It is very easy to accidentally change a template in Microsoft Word, for example.
Leading Grids
In order to align elements of a layout, professional designers use leading grids. Leading is the space between lines of text. More accurately, leading is the distance from one text line’s baseline to the next baseline. Leading grids are based upon the leading of the dominant text font on a page.
To create a leading grid, follow these steps:
Set page margins, which are to be ignored,
Select a text font and leading,
“Blue pencil” horizontal rules for every 2 to 5 lines,
Determine the proper column width for the text,
“Blue pencil” vertical rules for each column, leaving one en or em-space between each.
Most page-layout software accommodates grids. Without grids, layouts seem unpolished. Lines of text in one column should line up with the text in neighboring columns. Grids allow you to align text without hassle.
Point to a Start
You cannot begin a leading grid without knowing the point size and leading of the text font. If the leading is 12 points, you have it made – the horizontal gridlines are based upon sixths of an inch. That’s not likely, but worth knowing.
Vertical rules much column widths, so you want to calculate this width based upon the size of an en-space in the text font. Columns should be 30 to 40 en-spaces, or counts, wide. Since an en-space is generally a bit smaller than half of the point size, it’s safe to divide the point size by two, then multiply by 30.
30 × 5 points = 150 points
150 p / 12 (points / pica) = 12.5 picas
Of course, there’s a shortcut used by designers. Multiply the text font size by 1.2 and round to the nearest whole number. The result remains 10 point text uses roughly a 12 pica column.
Blue Pencils and Grids
Programs such as CorelDraw and InDesign allow guidelines to be positioned on screen. These lines appear in blue and do not print. In the “old days” designers drew rules using a blue pencil. The blue did not reproduce – and was hence known as non-repo blue. Some designers call placing guides “ruling with blue pencil” out of habit.
Picas Rule
Before you can place blue rules on a layout, set any visible rulers in the computer software to picas and points. The leading grid is based upon points, so a ruler in inches is useless. When setting the ruler, check to see if an exact number of points can be specified for major marks. Ideally, you want major marks on the rulers to match the leading.
Another important step to take is setting the 0 mark of each ruler to the upper-left corner of the page, within the margins. You do not want 0,0 to be outside of the margins, or you cannot easily set accurate grid rules. Grids must be precise to be effective.
Guidelines
Most modern programs use the same method for placing blue lines. Click on a ruler and drag the dashed line to where you want the blue rule. Remember to place lines only for every 2 to 5 lines of text. Some programs limit the number of guidelines per page.
Place the first vertical guide at the ruler mark indicating the ideal column width. Skip one from en-space to one em-space and create another guide. From this second rule, you have to count the column width for the next rule. Vertical guides, as you can tell, are much more time consuming.
As the vertical rules are difficult to match perfectly to the page width, try another shortcut. Divide the page width, in picas, by the column width. Most software allows that number to be entered into a box – and gridlines are created automatically, with a proper gap between each column.
Using Grids
Once a leading grid is designed, using it is simple. Text near a guideline should be sitting upon the line. Using only multiples of the text size for headlines and other text elements eases the task. Adjust text frames as needed to make this happen.
Sometimes you will have to add a bit of space before or after a paragraph to be true to a grid. These adjustments frequently follow the use of a text element which was not sized a multiple of the text point size.
Other graphical elements use the gridlines as borders. Do not let objects stray from the grid, since all objects affect the text around them. Using grids improves the underlying structure of a design. More importantly, grids facilitate modular layouts.
Modular Layouts
Printed pages always have featured some creativity. Until computers came into the process, however, creativity often required more time than publications had. The problem was worse for most corporations. Companies usually only had typewriters and photocopiers available for in-house documents.
Large publishers and print shops had computerized publishing systems in the mid 1970s, but today’s personal computers far outpace the old monsters.
Until personal computers established themselves in publishing and design in the mid 1980s, most layouts were based upon long strips of text. Older technologies could only produce strips of text, which were then pasted to layout boards. Because of the time involved in the layout process, interesting layouts were seldom created on purpose.
Recall the boring newsletters, memos, and flyers of the past. A secretary would type up various pages of text. Then, she would use scissors and glue to arrange a newsletter. Thankfully, she’s now the boss and understands what a computer and laser printer can do for your company.
Do not worry about creating “assembly line” publications. Modular layouts still allow for creativity. However, people like familiar products. Readers develop habits – a fact you want to use in your favor.
Rectangles
The best layouts package information into definite units. A popular example of packaging is the USA Today newspaper. Articles and design elements are rectangular in shape, which helps each element stand apart. Your designs should utilize this same theory.
Rectangular shapes should include all parts of an article. The headlines, artwork, photos, et cetera should all fit into a rectangle. You should treat rectangles as building blocks. If a more important feature is brought to you, you need to be able to move around others. Any shape, other than a rectangle, makes it difficult to perform last minute revisions.
Using frames in a computer program can guarantee that elements are rectangular. You might have to group several frames for this to work well. For example, you might have to link a frame for headlines to a frame containing body copy. Most layout programs do not allow for multiple column settings within one frame, forcing this two frame approach to modules.
Squares
Most amateur designers think of a square as just a more convenient rectangle. you will quickly find that squares result in boring layouts. Avoid squares whenever possible.
Golden Proportions
The ratio of 3:5 (or 5:3) is special to professional designers. This ratio is known as the Golden Proportion. Supposedly, this ratio dates back to the Roman empire. Photographers and artists have long noted that viewers seem to prefer pictures which are proportioned using this ratio.
Another special ratio is 2:3.5 for smaller shapes. This is the ratio of most business cards. This size, and multiples of it, seem very comfortable and familiar.
When designing a document, use these ratios to check your layout. When you place a photo or a completed module, use a calculator to help judge the element. Measure the sides of the rectangle, then divide the larger side by the smaller. If the result is between 1.50 and 1.75, you have a safe design element. If the result is too close to one, your element is too square. A ratio greater than two indicates that one side is too narrow.
White Space
Readers seldom think about the empty spaces around design elements. However, as an in-house designer, you should give a lot of thought to white space. We can think of no single design tool overlooked as often as empty space.
One reason designers avoid white space is fear. There is a sense that white space makes a publication look only half done. Most people can recall one or two poor layouts where white space looked like someone shot the layout apart. You might want to look at a few popular magazines to study their use of white space.
Solid, interesting designs make good use of white space. White space attracts attention to design elements. This ability to draw attention is why poor use of white space is obvious.
Summary & Tips
Use grids to keep designs consistent,
Rectangles are better than squares, and
Allow for white space in designs.
http://www.tameri.com/dtp/grids.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Design theories are based solely upon opinions. If this were not the case, each publication would look like its counterparts. Imagine a world of look-alike magazines – “yuck” barely describes our disgust. Sadly, computer templates and business card mills are creating a homogeneous environment in the corporate world. We have are own philosophies, but still encourage experimentation. The last thing you want is a layout that look like our work.
Our philosophy is simple: start with the tried and true basics. In publication design, the most basic philosophy involves grids. This chapter discusses how using grids and modular design principles can make designing easier – while still allowing for creativity.
Simple and Friendly
In the past, publications featured dozens of fonts, various styles of art, and mixed column widths. Newspapers and magazines of the late 1960s and early 1970s look like a montage. It’s often hard to distinguish the important from the unimportant articles.
Thankfully, the 1980s introduced a period of organization. Maybe it was the rush to buy daily organizers. Designers realized that content had to be sorted and organized more clearly. The number of fonts was reduced, improving readability. Artwork was standardized in publications, with art guidelines adopted by publications.
Consider the design of today’s reference books, including this one. Chapters are short and divided using short, obvious headings. Locating information is aided further by an overview of the book’s organization, a table of contents, and a lengthy index. Ease of use takes precedence.
Consistency
Simplicity is wonderful, but consistency is just as important. All company documents should have common traits. Develop a consistent design for all documents. Clients should immediately recognize your company’s newsletters, letterhead, et cetera. Once you design a particular type of document, maintain the look.
Professional designers often find it difficult to avoid experimenting with each new document. You might experience the same urge. Fight the desire to continually improve documents. If you do find that a change will improve readability of documents, redesign everything that shares the trait you are changing.
For example, if you decide to change a business card or letterhead design, throw out of the older documents. You should never distribute more than one design. Changing designs leaves an impression of disorganization – far from the ideal image for a business.
Use, Reuse, and Use Again
The easiest way to ensure consistency is to use the same computerized layouts over and over again. Most software allows you to store basic templates to reuse. These templates store information about various layout elements and fonts.
If the software you use does not save templates, store several copies of generic layouts. These layouts should also be backed-up to diskette, tape, or removable cartridge. It is very easy to accidentally change a template in Microsoft Word, for example.
Leading Grids
In order to align elements of a layout, professional designers use leading grids. Leading is the space between lines of text. More accurately, leading is the distance from one text line’s baseline to the next baseline. Leading grids are based upon the leading of the dominant text font on a page.
To create a leading grid, follow these steps:
Set page margins, which are to be ignored,
Select a text font and leading,
“Blue pencil” horizontal rules for every 2 to 5 lines,
Determine the proper column width for the text,
“Blue pencil” vertical rules for each column, leaving one en or em-space between each.
Most page-layout software accommodates grids. Without grids, layouts seem unpolished. Lines of text in one column should line up with the text in neighboring columns. Grids allow you to align text without hassle.
Point to a Start
You cannot begin a leading grid without knowing the point size and leading of the text font. If the leading is 12 points, you have it made – the horizontal gridlines are based upon sixths of an inch. That’s not likely, but worth knowing.
Vertical rules much column widths, so you want to calculate this width based upon the size of an en-space in the text font. Columns should be 30 to 40 en-spaces, or counts, wide. Since an en-space is generally a bit smaller than half of the point size, it’s safe to divide the point size by two, then multiply by 30.
30 × 5 points = 150 points
150 p / 12 (points / pica) = 12.5 picas
Of course, there’s a shortcut used by designers. Multiply the text font size by 1.2 and round to the nearest whole number. The result remains 10 point text uses roughly a 12 pica column.
Blue Pencils and Grids
Programs such as CorelDraw and InDesign allow guidelines to be positioned on screen. These lines appear in blue and do not print. In the “old days” designers drew rules using a blue pencil. The blue did not reproduce – and was hence known as non-repo blue. Some designers call placing guides “ruling with blue pencil” out of habit.
Picas Rule
Before you can place blue rules on a layout, set any visible rulers in the computer software to picas and points. The leading grid is based upon points, so a ruler in inches is useless. When setting the ruler, check to see if an exact number of points can be specified for major marks. Ideally, you want major marks on the rulers to match the leading.
Another important step to take is setting the 0 mark of each ruler to the upper-left corner of the page, within the margins. You do not want 0,0 to be outside of the margins, or you cannot easily set accurate grid rules. Grids must be precise to be effective.
Guidelines
Most modern programs use the same method for placing blue lines. Click on a ruler and drag the dashed line to where you want the blue rule. Remember to place lines only for every 2 to 5 lines of text. Some programs limit the number of guidelines per page.
Place the first vertical guide at the ruler mark indicating the ideal column width. Skip one from en-space to one em-space and create another guide. From this second rule, you have to count the column width for the next rule. Vertical guides, as you can tell, are much more time consuming.
As the vertical rules are difficult to match perfectly to the page width, try another shortcut. Divide the page width, in picas, by the column width. Most software allows that number to be entered into a box – and gridlines are created automatically, with a proper gap between each column.
Using Grids
Once a leading grid is designed, using it is simple. Text near a guideline should be sitting upon the line. Using only multiples of the text size for headlines and other text elements eases the task. Adjust text frames as needed to make this happen.
Sometimes you will have to add a bit of space before or after a paragraph to be true to a grid. These adjustments frequently follow the use of a text element which was not sized a multiple of the text point size.
Other graphical elements use the gridlines as borders. Do not let objects stray from the grid, since all objects affect the text around them. Using grids improves the underlying structure of a design. More importantly, grids facilitate modular layouts.
Modular Layouts
Printed pages always have featured some creativity. Until computers came into the process, however, creativity often required more time than publications had. The problem was worse for most corporations. Companies usually only had typewriters and photocopiers available for in-house documents.
Large publishers and print shops had computerized publishing systems in the mid 1970s, but today’s personal computers far outpace the old monsters.
Until personal computers established themselves in publishing and design in the mid 1980s, most layouts were based upon long strips of text. Older technologies could only produce strips of text, which were then pasted to layout boards. Because of the time involved in the layout process, interesting layouts were seldom created on purpose.
Recall the boring newsletters, memos, and flyers of the past. A secretary would type up various pages of text. Then, she would use scissors and glue to arrange a newsletter. Thankfully, she’s now the boss and understands what a computer and laser printer can do for your company.
Do not worry about creating “assembly line” publications. Modular layouts still allow for creativity. However, people like familiar products. Readers develop habits – a fact you want to use in your favor.
Rectangles
The best layouts package information into definite units. A popular example of packaging is the USA Today newspaper. Articles and design elements are rectangular in shape, which helps each element stand apart. Your designs should utilize this same theory.
Rectangular shapes should include all parts of an article. The headlines, artwork, photos, et cetera should all fit into a rectangle. You should treat rectangles as building blocks. If a more important feature is brought to you, you need to be able to move around others. Any shape, other than a rectangle, makes it difficult to perform last minute revisions.
Using frames in a computer program can guarantee that elements are rectangular. You might have to group several frames for this to work well. For example, you might have to link a frame for headlines to a frame containing body copy. Most layout programs do not allow for multiple column settings within one frame, forcing this two frame approach to modules.
Squares
Most amateur designers think of a square as just a more convenient rectangle. you will quickly find that squares result in boring layouts. Avoid squares whenever possible.
Golden Proportions
The ratio of 3:5 (or 5:3) is special to professional designers. This ratio is known as the Golden Proportion. Supposedly, this ratio dates back to the Roman empire. Photographers and artists have long noted that viewers seem to prefer pictures which are proportioned using this ratio.
Another special ratio is 2:3.5 for smaller shapes. This is the ratio of most business cards. This size, and multiples of it, seem very comfortable and familiar.
When designing a document, use these ratios to check your layout. When you place a photo or a completed module, use a calculator to help judge the element. Measure the sides of the rectangle, then divide the larger side by the smaller. If the result is between 1.50 and 1.75, you have a safe design element. If the result is too close to one, your element is too square. A ratio greater than two indicates that one side is too narrow.
White Space
Readers seldom think about the empty spaces around design elements. However, as an in-house designer, you should give a lot of thought to white space. We can think of no single design tool overlooked as often as empty space.
One reason designers avoid white space is fear. There is a sense that white space makes a publication look only half done. Most people can recall one or two poor layouts where white space looked like someone shot the layout apart. You might want to look at a few popular magazines to study their use of white space.
Solid, interesting designs make good use of white space. White space attracts attention to design elements. This ability to draw attention is why poor use of white space is obvious.
Summary & Tips
Use grids to keep designs consistent,
Rectangles are better than squares, and
Allow for white space in designs.
http://www.tameri.com/dtp/grids.html
Book design Tschichold's rules
Tschichold's rules
Jan Tschichold (1902-1974) was one of the gr
eat book designers of the 20th century. He examined and measured many books from the medieval and renaissance periods trying to find "rules" for a pleasing design of book margins. He summarized his investigations in a book published in 1955. Tschichold recommended a 2:3:4:6 ratio among inner, top, outer, and bottom margins. For example:
Jan Tschichold (1902-1974) was one of the gr
eat book designers of the 20th century. He examined and measured many books from the medieval and renaissance periods trying to find "rules" for a pleasing design of book margins. He summarized his investigations in a book published in 1955. Tschichold recommended a 2:3:4:6 ratio among inner, top, outer, and bottom margins. For example:
Redesign a book according to Tschichold's rules
Pick any book. Measure the page size, text area, and margin widths.
Redesign the book's page so that page height and width, as well as the text area, are the same as that of the original book, but the margins satisfy Tschichold's rules.
http://www.cet.ac.il/math/function/english/square/design/design4.htm
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