Web Designing For the Reading

Experience
With the rise of web fonts as well as affordable hosted web font services and ready-made kits,
typography is reclaiming its title as design queen, ruler of all graphic and web design.
The allure of well-executed lettering and, boy, I could spend hours just looking at lettering
portfolios! can affect the way we view typefaces, because both typography and lettering
share common visual concepts. If we seek only the next most Beautiful Typeface all the
time, this habit alone can drive us away from the functional role of typefaces and their
advantages as versatile, reusable and flexible design systems.
A. Project Research :
As you are most likely aware, the main components of a digital experience are content, context
and the user. You probably address all three in almost every design project. But if we focus
exclusively on typography within each of these components, then wed find a handful of
assessment methods and some considerations that would be useful to take into account and that
would ultimately improve the overall reading experience.

Cover All Typographic Elements : Upon reading the content, think about the structures or
elements you have encountered and list them. Use the list as a starting point for a simple style
guide

Gauge Reading Time : Depending on the situation, estimating reading time can help us
determine the spacing within paragraphs and establish just the right rhythm and reading pace.
If the reading time is long, we could break the text into smaller parts or simply introduce a pull
quote at a strategic point.
Assess Readability and Reading Ease: Automated Readability
Index (ARI). ARI focuses on the number of characters, words and sentences, thereby making it
useful for real-time monitoring. The FleschKincaid Grade Level test, on the other hand,

focuses on syllables rather than characters, thus making it somewhat more processor-intensive
for real-time assessments.
B. Content Strategy, Information Architecture and Micro-copy:
Thinking about the contents lifecycle protects us from the urge to typeset according to the
latest trend. The next time an article is republished, we can prevent the editors rage from seeing
leftover styles that werent removed in preparation for a redesign.
Category labels typically defined by an information architect can make the web designers
life miserable, because the space in a navigation bar or column is limited. Id bet that at some
point in their career, every web designer has tried to rename or shorten category names in order
to fit the available space. Of course, we could always reduce the font size or choose a condensed
type, but if all else fails, we talk to the information architect to find a solution on their end.
C. CONTEXT LINK
With recent developments in web standards, designers are now building websites that are
getting closer and closer to the ideal of One Web, accessible to everyone and everywhere. Even
though achieving such universality with all types of projects is difficult, we know that mobile
doesnt just mean browsing the web on a smartphone while on the go.
1. Software Concerns
Users on Windows systems with the ClearType rendering engine benefit from well-hinted fonts.
The trouble is that hinting is a time-consuming process, and not all typefaces for the web are
fully polished yet. Therefore, additional testing in Windows browsers should form part of your
regular routine. Keep in mind thateach web font service might deliver slightly different
fonts. A font might yield good results when delivered through one service but look barely
adequate when delivered through another.
2. Hardware Concerns
A problem we are facing across the industry is the diversity of pixel densities; as a result,
typography is not spared either. One interesting solution is to embed graded fonts for different

densities, just as print designers use graded fonts to more precisely control the effects of ink on
paper. Read more about this approach in Oliver Reichensteins article New Site With
Responsive Typography.
3. LETTER LEGIBILITY LINK
Another important test of legibility is how different each glyph is from the other glyphs in a
single typeface. Designers use pangrams, or short test strings, to evaluate and compare
typefaces; for examples, the famous The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog,
Handgloves and Hamburgefonstiv.
Editorial Accessories Link
Display and decorative typefaces are appropriate for short text snippets, such as headlines and
pull quotes, because they set the tone and atmosphere and break up long copy (remember the
reading-time assessment from above?). Text typefaces are utilitarian and suitable for long
reading. Reading can get boring after a while, particularly on an attention-hostile technology
such as an Internet-connected computer.
We Have A Responsibility Link
Two important factors should influence your decisions. First, if they dont like your typographic
choice, a reader can change it via the customization options built into the application or device.
And if they do that, they will usually change it to something more generic, thus ruining your
typesetting altogether. Back in the day, when we combined absolute units for line heights with
relative units for letters in Internet Explorer, even a slight increase in letter size would bring
chaos to thepage.For more views on Web Designing Solutions visit BuzzTO Web Development
Solution Agency