How To Make Your Packaging More Accessible For Customers With Visual Impairments

Whether you are designing packaging for bank cards or for SIM cards, you want to make sure that the words can be read easily by everyone. This can be tricky at times, as often the packaging is small and you have a lot to say. It is reported that 1 in 30 people in the UK are blind or have impaired vision and 15% of the population are dyslexic so it is wise to consider making all your packaging is as accessible as possible. Follow these guidelines as a starting point.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT FONT

Of course, you will have the brand fonts that you will want to use, especially for logos and tag lines. If you want the rest to be truly accessible to someone though, consider fonts that are easily read for the body text. This will mean that you don’t alienate anyone and get your message across the first time. Some fonts are difficult to read, especially handwritten fonts, which is an issue for dyslexic customers who struggle to identify different letter shapes. To make it easier for everyone choose Arial, which is the easiest to read. Others that are easy to read include Calibri, Century Gothic, Helvetica, Tahoma and Verdana.

These are “sans serif” which means that they don’t have a “decorative line”; they are plain and don’t distract.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT COLOUR

Once you have chosen a font that is easy to read, you need to decide on the colour of the font. Again this is usually dictated by your brand colours but be careful as you want the information you have printed to be clear. You need to aim for the highest contrast possible between the background and the font colour. The ideal is to use light text on dark backgrounds or dark text on light backgrounds. Yellow text works well on a dark background which is why it is often used on adverts.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT SPACING

Once you have chosen your font and colours, look to see what the spacing is like between each character. The closer together they are, the harder it is to read. This includes the space between lines of text – it is recommended to have a 1.5 line spacing.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT SIZE

Make sure you look closely at the size of your font to make sure it is easy to read. Often you will want to get a lot of words into a small space, but less is more. Not only is it better to be succinct, but it will also be easier for everyone to read. The size you choose depends on the size of the card so we cannot say what will be best for you – but of course, we can support you with this at the design stage.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT PAPER/CARD

Paper or card without gloss is also easier to read as there is no glare. A flat finish will work better.

We of course are on hand throughout the whole process to guide you to get this right the first time to ensure your packaging is accessible.