Typography in UX/UI: A Complete Guide & The Absolute Power
Nasir Ahmed
UX/UI Designer | Passionate about helping clients worldwide transition their business to digital.
Scrolling, shopping online, reading blogs – whatever you do, you’ll find written words.?
The meaning of these words is one of the essential components, but it’s certainly not the only one.?Have you ever considered the correlation between the meaning and the overall look and feel of the text?
Whatever your answer might be, keep reading because you’ll learn what typography is, its essential elements, and the importance of typography in UX/UI design.
First, what exactly is Typography??
Typography?is the?art of arranging letters?and text to make the textual content legible, easily digestible, and visually appealing to the reader.
In whichever product you use (especially digital ones) a designer (or a whole design team) carefully and strategically agreed upon a font style, size, and structure to deepen and?convey the text’s message.
Even though the importance of typography rises every day, and you’ll most likely connect it to digital products, typography goes way back into the 11th century! The first example of typography emerged from Gutenberg’s Bible, which inspired and influenced Western civilizations.
Thanks to the world wide web, especially in the last two decades, designers can find and use a vast collection of new, appealing fonts. Typography in UX/UI design is one of the most crucial elements because it connects the overall design with the brand’s message.
The key elements of typography
There are several aspects of typography you need to know about: typefaces and fonts, white spaces, tracking, kerning, consistency, hierarchy, alignment, color, and contrast.
Typefaces and fonts
If you’re a design newbie, you’re probably confused and trying to understand the distinction between typefaces and fonts.?
A font is a graphical representation of text characters. A typeface is a design style that consists of multiple characters, which vary in weight and size. It is like “a family” of fonts which differ in weight, width, and style.
White space
Another aspect of typography in UX/UI design is white space. White space is the empty space that surrounds the text, images or other graphics in interfaces. Mostly, it’s the?color of the background.?Designers alter white space around the text by adjusting margins, line spacing, or padding.?
Even though white space can seem a bit trivial, its proper use can significantly impact the text’s overall readability, flow, and feel. For example, designers like to increase the white space when they want to highlight an essential section of the text.
Tracking
Tracking?is a process of adjusting the space for a group of type characters which form a word and text block. Designers try to determine the?appropriate spacing?for all letters,?making the text look cleaner and easier to read. Tracking is effective when users can easily read the letters in a word. Tracking is also known as letter spacing.
Kerning
Kerning is another method of arranging typography in UX/UI design. It has similarities with tracking, but they are not the same. As mentioned above, tracking is the space between all the font characters, whereas kerning is the?space between just two type characters.?
Designers resort to kerning when they want to change the spacing between two particular letters to make it look more natural.
Consistency
A good designer always ensures the consistency of typography in their design. If there is no consistency with different typefaces and fonts, your product will look messy, confusing, unattractive, and hard to digest for future users. Consistency means?establishing a hierarchy?which directs the use of fonts, their sizes, and formatting.
Establishing and following such order will help the readers?easily navigate?the text by subconsciously noticing and embracing the hierarchy and help them read the text (and achieve their ultimate goal) with ease, which is one of the primary purposes of typography in UX/UI design.
Hierarchy
As we already mentioned, another aspect of typography is its hierarchy. Designers organize the text on their digital products by determining the use of typefaces and their?styles, sizes, and weight.?Hierarchy and consistency are crucial elements of typography.?
For example, if you look at our blog article, you’ll notice a larger or bolder typeface for the blog header, subheaders, or quotes.?Such structuring helps you – the reader – navigate and scan the text more easily. A well-structured hierarchy of?typography in UX/UI design means the job of conveying the message half done.
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Alignment
Alignment means setting equal and?adequate space,?size, and distance between the elements – text or graphics.
Most UI designers?use?margins?to ensure everything is aligned – the logo, the header, and the body of the text. However, there is a small space where you can create your “solution”, but keeping it clean, readable, and consistent is still critical.?It’s always good practice to check the industry standard when designing an interface.
Color
Color is one of the most practical ways to make typography in UX/UI impactful. As a designer, you’ll have to?pick colors that fit?your digital product’s background and other graphics.?Setting the typography of the product is not the time nor place to experiment with contrasting colors, or use too much of them.?
Such mixing and mashing with colors will result in only adverse outcomes, such as lower readability & digestibility and?higher chances of disturbing?users while reading and reaching their objective. A good UI designer will work to balance the color of the text, its nuances, hues, and saturations, with other elements to achieve a clean look and seamless experience.
Contrast
Designers resort to contrasts when they want to?create a distinction?or emphasize typography’s elements, such as using different colors, sizes, or even another typeface.?
When creating contrasts, you can?draw attention?to a specific message or area of the page, improve readability, or break the page.?Good use of contrasts adds another level to the overall quality hierarchy of typography in UX/UI design and makes it easier for users to navigate.
The Absolute Power Of Typography
When designing a website or mobile app, typography does not only work as a visual communication tool. It also brings many benefits:
Good typography delivers page content in an immersive visual form and makes it easy for users to read, scan and navigate around. It simplifies the process users need to go through to find the desired information and learn how the product or service helps them out.
The style of typography sometimes also sets an overall tone or mood for all interfaces. For example, when you are using a cartoon font with warm colors, soft lines and bold strokes to present the page banners or titles, you?add fun and personalization to your page. However, when you choose a plain, simple and serious typography, you also seem to set a serious tone for your entire app.
Like other elements in UI design, high-quality typography often has a professional look, and combines the brand vision, color and concept together. All these features make it easy to stand out from others. Nevertheless, unique and effective typography also impresses users and lets them remember the website or mobile app brand.
Successful typography design encourages users to spend more time on your app and makes it easy for them to find whatever information they need quickly. This increases the product or service sales by reducing any distractions to the customer.
So, no matter what happens, you and your team should always work together to create better typography.
Typography is more than just selecting fonts; it is a powerful tool for effective communication. As I embarked on my UI/UX journey, I quickly learned that typography sets the tone and establishes hierarchy within a design. By choosing appropriate fonts, font weights, and sizes, I could guide users' attention, convey the right message, and create an intuitive user interface.
One of the fundamental aspects of UI/UX design is creating a clear visual hierarchy to guide users through a digital product or website. Typography played a significant role in this process. By utilizing different font sizes, styles, and colors, I could emphasize important information and guide users towards the desired actions. Understanding the principles of typography allowed me to create intuitive and visually pleasing user interfaces.
Typography is a powerful tool for establishing and maintaining brand identity. As a UI/UX designer, I recognized that font selection can convey a brand's personality, values, and characteristics. Whether it's a bold and modern typeface for a technology company or a sophisticated serif font for a luxury brand, typography creates a visual language that resonates with users and reinforces brand recognition.