LEGIBILITY, DYSLEXIA, AND BIASES
I always loved fonts; I had been obsessed with fonts and typography my whole life, or at least since going to school for art. In my first job as an Infographic designer, part of my duties was to match regular commercial fonts with those of logos. The available fonts never completely matched; brands love to create personalized typographies. My job was to recreate precisely the brand font starting with a regular font. It was a lot of fun. I know many designers share a love for typography. I still remember laughing for hours with my designer friends, talking about the Papyrus' SNL sketch. What a bunch of geeks.
Let's start this journey by talking about and defining dyslexia; after all, dyslexia is at the core of this story.
Dyslexia:
"Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities."_ definition by the International Dyslexia Association.
Some of you may wonder where my interest in dyslexia comes from. Well, the answer is simple, I am dyslexic. For those who don't know me, let me explain what dyslexia means to me and how it shapes my world. When I read, I often need to read the same passage a couple of times to process it. The best way for me to absorb knowledge from reading is if the text joins forces with an audio recording. Audible and O'Reilly playlist, I love you both. The best way for me to remember a word is to associate it with an image. In order to spell a word, I need to learn each word by memory. Memorize letter after letter.
While I am reading, letters tend to jump (only on my head :D). Sometimes I struggle, but it has made me who I am. It has helped me understand my strengths and overcome (for the most part, it is still a work in progress) my weaknesses. But this story is not exactly about me; it is about biases. Let's keep unwrapping it.
As a designer, I developed an admiration for "San Serif" typefaces. They became my to-go typography for any project. I used them for print and digital projects. You could not convince me to use any other typeface. I thought they were elegant but simple, honest, clean, complete, modern, and straightforward. Partially all of those adjectives are true. One of the most famous typefaces in this category is Helvetica, with a great list of fonts. This typeface has been used since the '50s, and it has too many clones. It is so clear that it is the number one typeface used on signage.
As a professional designer, I thought the fact that I prevail one typeface over the other was based on my experience. Oh, how wrong I was. Working on a school project, I decided to dive deep into understanding my limitations and how to help users with dyslexia. I came across a study from Luz Rello and Ricardo Baeza about fonts and dyslexia. You can access the complete research on a link below, but to summarize, "San serif, roman and monospaced font types" increase dyslexics "reading performance. Good fonts for people with dyslexia are Helvetica, Courier, Arial, Verdana, and Computer Modern Unicode." Exactly the fonts I love to use on my projects.
Let's talk about bias. Bias is when we automatically default to what is familiar, easy, and what we know. It is unconscious, but it can be unlearned; we need to constantly challenge ourselves. As you all can imagine, I am not sure anymore if I like fonts because they are the right fit for the project or are easy on me. What is true is that it has changed the way I face a new project. If I am designing with accessibility in mind and for inclusion, using fonts that I find appealing and elegant is a good idea. Now I know they will help other users with dyslexia to decode writing text. As UX, I am pro the democratization of information. I want to design to include as many users as I possibly can. My clients deserve for me to try to help them access a big audience. If the project is designing a personal brand, I collaborate with the client on selecting an appropriate font. I always explain to them the limitations and dangers of choosing a font that is difficult to read, but I also listen to their needs and likes.
