Web Typography Best Practices & Font Psychology
When designing websites, it is important to understand what web design guidelines and standards to follow, and in the realms of typography, this means typography rules, web typography best practices, as well as the effect of designing with typography in the form of font psychology.
Web Design Guidelines
The beauty of typography goes beyond mere aesthetics; it facilitates the communication between you and your audience. Although it is important for web designers to understand the basic discipline behind the application of font usage and typography rules for text based websites as well as general text on the web. Simply using flashy presentations and layouts won’t get you anywhere. The key is to integrate your design with valuable information and good content for good website design.
Typography Rules
Some typography rules to follow to adhere to the best practices for web design include:
- Create text hierarchy to organize and create direction
- Use design repetition to create consistency and familiarity to avoid confusion
- Use white space around text to prevent the nterface from becoming cluttered
- Use contract to emphasize a message
When choosing a typeface to use, it is important to think about the content you are designing for. Some questions you can ask yourself include:
- What message and emotion do you want to convey to the audience?
- What is the persona and personality of your design?
- What is the purpose and intent of your design?
Font Psychology
So how do you execute your desired purpose and design intent? One concept to take into account is font psychology, the study by which font and typography can impact one’s feelings, emotions, and behaviors – literally the psychology of typography. For example, comic sans is popularly used in materials for children due to its high legibility whereas comic sans might not be suitable for academic papers and essays. The impact of small text in black is different from that of billboard sized text in flashing bold red. To read more on font psychology and how to use it, check out this article by Canva.
With this information and knowledge in mind, now you are ready to properly execute web design standards and to follow good website design practices for the optimal website for you!
