5 Website Development Tips To Boost Your Business Growth Exponentially
As a web designer, you know that nailing the typography on your site can drastically improve your overall design. Getting it right with type drives a strong design and conveys your message more effectively. Are your typographic skills up to par? Whether you’re a typeface newbie or a seasoned pro, take a look at these essential dos and don’ts that everyone who works with type should know.
DON’T use too many different fonts
You probably have access to thousands of fonts. Don’t try to implement them all in one design. Use no more than two or three fonts per page to keep it simple, clean and professional. Not only will this make your life easier, it will also increase your site’s clarity. Using multiple fonts can distract the reader. It can also make your site look downright tacky. For example:
Instead, keep things simple like this.
The readability of your site should be your number one concern. If your visitors can’t read the text on your site easily and quickly, they will leave.
DO watch kerning
If you’ve been ignoring kerning your typography, here’s a reason why you need to pay attention. Proper kerning (balancing the white – space between your letters) makes a dramatic impact on your typography and can improve your overall site design by leaps and bounds. Therefore, don’t let it fall through the cracks (or think Photoshop will do it for you). Make it a point to keep kerning in mind, analyze your letter spacing on every piece of typography you create. While there is really no magic formula for kerning, it just takes a few moments to manually adjust the white – space between the letters. You really just need to eyeball it until you get it just right. Once you do this on a regular basis, you’ll get a feel for it and will be able to do it quickly.
DON’T use ornate fonts for large blocks of text
Keep the font simple for large blocks of text. While using a creative font may work well for headlines or short blurbs of text, outlandish fonts can make large blocks of text look garbled up and confusing. Take a look at these two pieces of text:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nunc a neque orci. Suspendisse pharetra ultrices mauris, eu lobortis turpis tempus eget. Morbi sagittis lacus ut magna lobortis sollicitudin. Fusce commodo suscipit ipsum euismod posuere. Vivamus eget lectus odio, cursus iaculis tellus. Cras varius mattis mauris, nec ultricies nisl feugiat ac. Sed congue suscipit lacinia. Duis sapien nunc, sagittis sit amet consequat a, congue id urna. Morbi auctor libero lectus. Duis ut nunc leo, et cursus quam. Nunc at dui non enim facilisis vehicula vel at ligula. Etiam scelerisque porttitor risus ac luctus. In nec tortor enim, aliquam tincidunt lorem. Nulla facilisi.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nunc a neque orci. Suspendisse pharetra ultrices mauris, eu lobortis turpis tempus eget. Morbi sagittis lacus ut magna lobortis sollicitudin. Fusce commodo suscipit ipsum euismod posuere. Vivamus eget lectus odio, cursus iaculis tellus. Cras varius mattis mauris, nec ultricies nisl feugiat ac. Sed congue suscipit lacinia. Duis sapien nunc, sagittis sit amet consequat a, congue id urna. Morbi auctor libero lectus. Duis ut nunc leo, et cursus quam. Nunc at dui non enim facilisis vehicula vel at ligula. Etiam scelerisque porttitor risus ac luctus. In nec tortor enim, aliquam tincidunt lorem. Nulla facilisi.
Which one do you prefer? Again, the key here is user readability. You don’t want to give your readers a headache with your cutting – edge font. Instead, use fonts with clean lines to help your reader’s eye to be able to scan the text easily and quickly.
DO pay attention to hierarchy
The text on your page should have a strong hierarchy. Hierarchy gives pages structure and helps the user scan and read the content easily. It visually guides the reader through the content and lets them know what’s most important. Use proper title tags for the most important sections (like <h1> and <em>)and smaller title tags for subheads and other less important sections. Vary font sizes, weight, placement, spacing and/or color to achieve your desired level of contrast. Each level of the hierarchy should be signaled by at least one (but no more than three) of these cues. Keep in mind that you should use proper hierarchy at both the micro – level (such as all the small design elements on the page) and at a macro – level (i.e. the overall site design).
DON’T use comic sans for anything ever
Never use comic sans in any of your designs. Comic sans just comes off tacky and dated – like circa 1994. Using this cheesy font comes off as unprofessional and unpolished. It’s also ill – suited for blocks of long text as it decreases readability down to zero. You may think that most users of comic sans jumped ship a long time ago, but you’d be surprised how often some designers still rely on comic sans. Do yourself a favor and pick another font.
DO occasionally break the rules
Every web designer worth their salt knows that the rules should be broken when necessary – especially when it would lead to a stunning design. Keep the rules in mind. Make wise typeface choices, use space effectively and establish a strong hierarchy. Then go ahead and mix it up a little bit. The best designs break the mold in exciting new ways. Just don’t – whatever you do – use comic sans.
Read more http://www.webdesign.org/web-typography-7-typography-rules-you-can-t-pass-by.22300.html
Published on: Mar 03, 2021
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