There’s more to typography than meets the eye. In this blog post, we’ll explain why selecting the right font for your e-commerce website is so important. Believe it or not, poor typography choices can actually have a detrimental impact on your store’s bounce rate and even effect sales! Read on to find out more…
What is typography?
Typography is the visual component of the written word. It forms a central part of design and encompasses the style and arrangement of text. The key elements of typography are: typeface, fonts, line length, leading, kerning and tracking.
Why is it important?
• It’s the first thing people see when they land on your page. First impressions count!
• Typography is crucial to web design because it helps people to read and understand content.
• When it comes to communication online, it’s crucial that you choose typefaces and fonts that enhance and compliment your copy.
• If you don’t pay attention to typography, your conversion rates will undoubtedly suffer. • People don’t stick around for long on websites they find difficult to read.
• Typography helps us call attention to the most important aspects of our content (through a change in style, colour or size).
Emotions and actions
Research by psychologist Kevin Larson into how fonts affect emotions concluded that well designed layouts and fonts make people feel good and make reading feel easier, more enjoyable and inspire readers to take action. Poorly designed layouts and fonts were found to cause visible signs of distress and reduced enjoyment levels, doing nothing to encourage action.
Trust and confidence
In 2013, The New York Times ran an online experiment to find out which typefaces inspired confidence, and which weakened credibility. 40,000 people read an article (presented in a variety of different typefaces) which reported the results of a scientific study. They were then asked to complete a short quiz to examine whether or not they found the results of the study believable.
The study revealed that the choice of typeface did indeed influence the level of trust readers placed in the results of the article. Even though the content of the article was unchanged throughout, Baskerville was seen to generate trust, while Comic Sans apparently caused some readers to disregard the results entirely.
Perception
Each typeface has its own unique personality and has the ability to influence our perception of brands and subtly convey a wide range of feelings and emotions. Here’s a list of words associated with 4 commonly used typefaces.
Sans Serif
• Stability
• Objective
• Clean
• Modern
• Dependability
Serif
• Traditional
• Respectable
• Reliable
• Comfort
Display
• Friendly
• Expressive
• Amusing
• Unique
Script
• Elegance
• Affectionate
• Creativity
So, what should I use for my website?
There’s no right or wrong answer to this question – it depends entirely on what you are trying to achieve and the traits you hope to convey to people reading your website. Here are a few general tips to help you with your selection:
Type Tips
• Make sure it’s readable
We all have our own personal preferences when it comes to typeface and fonts, but what really matters is that your content is easy to read and doesn’t present readers with a challenge.
• Know your brand
Think about the image you want to portray and choose a typeface that works to convey this to people viewing your website.
• Be consistent
Don’t overcomplicate your website by using dozens of different typefaces, fonts and sizes. This will look unprofessional and make it difficult for people to scan your pages. Keep it simple.
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• Think about purpose
You want people to remember your website for its engaging content, not its decorative typeface.
Get in touch
If you want to find out more about how typography influences web design, why not get in touch with Fluid Digital? Our award-winning team of web designers excel at bringing e-commerce design concepts to life. For more information, call 0161-762-4920, or complete our online contact form and a member of our team will be in touch with you very soon.
