5 ms·

If you take individual stylistic elements you can easily argue they don't make a difference, but all these little details combined is what makes the difference.

If you take individual stylistic elements you can easily argue they don't make a difference, but all these little details combined is what makes the difference. Fonts and typography are hugely important, especially in minimalistic styles. I think there is also a misunderstanding in this article that aesthetics don't serve purpose. Aesthetics have impact on how things are perceived, meaning it actually has impact on the user experience https://www.nngroup.com/articles/aesthetic-usability-effect/ https://www.nngroup.com/articles/aesthetic-usability-effect/

Hitton 4y ago
Sometime I'd like to see trustworthy double-blind study that really shows that for user perception of these websites the special custom font matters (compared to similar common font and including slower loading of page).
- codeptualize 4y ago
  The aesthetic–usability effect has been studied in the types of experiments you describe. It is also pretty easy to find yourself if you do some simple usability tests. There is a scale to it of course. It's not like aesthetics can fix unusable products, it's just one of the tools you can and should use. And this is just usability, ignoring the value of branding, identity, etc. If "custom fonts are good or bad" is imo not something you can get a definitive answer on. The impact on perception of usability obviously depends heavily on the fonts that are loaded, how they are used, and the rest of the page. Making broad statements will probably miss the nuance of usability and user experience. Loading time is also a bit of a strange thing to take as a downside. Loading fonts does not have to be blocking (see font-display css), also there is a difference between loading 2 font files or 17, fonts are usually cached, and we even have variable fonts these days reducing size significantly. In other words it depends on the situation. As with most usability topics the real way to find out is to test your use case. In my experience a few kb's more or less is not going to have a significant impact in many situations, especially if they are loaded in a non blocking way. By all means test your case, it's always a good idea to test, and you will likely find 10 issues more urgent and more important than a couple of fonts.
  - timw4mail 4y ago
    Umm...font loading is blocking. Not in a bytes transferred way, but in terms of user experience. Text disappearing for a font to load is not a good experience. Unless the website is an art piece, portfolio, or something similar, where the typographic design actually matters, I'd say the system fonts are a better choice.
    - codeptualize 4y ago
      Umm...like I pointed out, it doesn't have to be as we now have "font-display" which provides multiple strategies for loading (or not loading) web fonts. MDN: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/@font-face/font-display https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/@font-face/... Demo: https://font-display.glitch.me/ https://font-display.glitch.me/ More info, pro/cons: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2021/05/reduce-font-loading-impact-css-descriptors/ https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2021/05/reduce-font-loading... And there is even more on the way: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/@font-face/size-adjust https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/@font-face/... As to the "better or not", read my previous comment(s).
deleted 4y ago
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cosmotic 4y ago
Can you clarify 'hugely important'? The cited article seems to be saying 'don't make bad design choices or sacrifice usability or accessibility in the name of (bad) design'. I don't see it saying anything about selling more widgets by changing the font.
- codeptualize 4y ago
  No, the article tells you that aesthetics have impact on (perceived) usability, fonts are hugely important to aesthetics. Better usability is whats going to sell more widgets. But in terms of sales the branding is probably even more important, brands are hugely important in selling products, and fonts/typography are a big part of that. I did not focus on that as the article made the aesthetics-do-not-serve-purpose claim, but for sales branding is as relevant if not more relevant. So if you are selling things I think you can pretty easily justify nice fonts to make your brand and products more desirable. It does matter what your brand is of course, if your USP is cheap no frills a system font might serve that well.

Hitton 4y ago

Sometime I'd like to see trustworthy double-blind study that really shows that for user perception of these websites the special custom font matters (compared to similar common font and including slower loading of page).

codeptualize 4y ago
The aesthetic–usability effect has been studied in the types of experiments you describe. It is also pretty easy to find yourself if you do some simple usability tests. There is a scale to it of course. It's not like aesthetics can fix unusable products, it's just one of the tools you can and should use. And this is just usability, ignoring the value of branding, identity, etc. If "custom fonts are good or bad" is imo not something you can get a definitive answer on. The impact on perception of usability obviously depends heavily on the fonts that are loaded, how they are used, and the rest of the page. Making broad statements will probably miss the nuance of usability and user experience. Loading time is also a bit of a strange thing to take as a downside. Loading fonts does not have to be blocking (see font-display css), also there is a difference between loading 2 font files or 17, fonts are usually cached, and we even have variable fonts these days reducing size significantly. In other words it depends on the situation. As with most usability topics the real way to find out is to test your use case. In my experience a few kb's more or less is not going to have a significant impact in many situations, especially if they are loaded in a non blocking way. By all means test your case, it's always a good idea to test, and you will likely find 10 issues more urgent and more important than a couple of fonts.
- timw4mail 4y ago
  Umm...font loading is blocking. Not in a bytes transferred way, but in terms of user experience. Text disappearing for a font to load is not a good experience. Unless the website is an art piece, portfolio, or something similar, where the typographic design actually matters, I'd say the system fonts are a better choice.
  - codeptualize 4y ago
    Umm...like I pointed out, it doesn't have to be as we now have "font-display" which provides multiple strategies for loading (or not loading) web fonts. MDN: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/@font-face/font-display https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/@font-face/... Demo: https://font-display.glitch.me/ https://font-display.glitch.me/ More info, pro/cons: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2021/05/reduce-font-loading-impact-css-descriptors/ https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2021/05/reduce-font-loading... And there is even more on the way: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/@font-face/size-adjust https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/@font-face/... As to the "better or not", read my previous comment(s).

deleted 4y ago

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cosmotic 4y ago

Can you clarify 'hugely important'? The cited article seems to be saying 'don't make bad design choices or sacrifice usability or accessibility in the name of (bad) design'. I don't see it saying anything about selling more widgets by changing the font.

codeptualize 4y ago
No, the article tells you that aesthetics have impact on (perceived) usability, fonts are hugely important to aesthetics. Better usability is whats going to sell more widgets. But in terms of sales the branding is probably even more important, brands are hugely important in selling products, and fonts/typography are a big part of that. I did not focus on that as the article made the aesthetics-do-not-serve-purpose claim, but for sales branding is as relevant if not more relevant. So if you are selling things I think you can pretty easily justify nice fonts to make your brand and products more desirable. It does matter what your brand is of course, if your USP is cheap no frills a system font might serve that well.