Font of all knowledge

Typography isn't just about knowing your Times New Roman from your Calibri. There's far more to digest. Kai Merriott investigates...

Just attended an interesting webinar by Neil Lasher, MD of Trainer 1. He asked "Is learning design a science?" A lot of what he said wasn't new, but it was certainly worth repeating.

He talked web layouts in relation to the Gutenberg Diagram, which shows how your eye is drawn from the top left to the bottom right of the screen. There are certain areas on the screen which a visitor will always read, so you'll need to fill those with your most important info.

But it also means there's a lot of dead space that the eye doesn't hit. No-go zones for killer copy.

In particular, I liked his bit on fonts. We don't often think about how fonts should be used on the page - apart from "avoid Comic Sans" (incidentally, if you're a fan of Comic Sans, you may enjoy this Guardian blog defending the much-despised typeface).

We tend to choose by gut instinct. Or, more realistically, by what the customer's brand team tells us to use.

At Brightwave, Verdana is our house style. And, according to Neil, it seems we've chosen wisely as it's widely held as the industry standard typeface. And why? Because it's a font that's hard to digest.

Apparently, Arial is a "recognition font", meaning it's easy to skim through and pick out key words.

Sound like a good thing? Apparently not, because evidence suggests you don't remember what you've read. Using 'challenging' typography plays a small part in making e-learning tasks more engaging.

Verdana is a slightly more awkward-looking font. It doesn't have that "skimmability" factor, so you're forced to take in every word. That means you're more likely to remember the information.

An interesting thought. Choosing something because it's less easy to digest conflicts with the usual theories about making things easy on the learner. But it's a point worth making.

Any thoughts on which fonts you find most pleasing to read? What about your fonts from hell?

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