Shall we change the site font? Your views please.

Several people have mentioned to us that they find the font on this site rather difficult to read, so we have decided to offer some alternatives, and ask for your views.

We've come up with two alternatives - ARIAL, the second VERDANA. There is an image of what the site would look like with each of these fonts below.

Please let us know if you would like us to change the font or keep the existing one, and if so, which one - VOTE HERE

ARIAL




VERDANA:





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Comment by Tom Beardshaw on March 29, 2010 at 0:27
What sparked the vote as a number of complaints coming into the NTW team saying that the site was difficult to read and people found it off putting. NativeHQ were asked to change the font and we felt that a degree of consultation was necessary, as the site is the community's home and sudden unexpected changes often produce negative reactions on community sites. We wanted to get a sample of views.
Comment by Tom Beardshaw on March 28, 2010 at 23:08
A vote will always be a subset of the total population Aaron, so yes... 85% of a 10% sample asking for a change does justify a change. No one voted for the initial design.
Comment by Peter Cox MBE on March 28, 2010 at 21:07
Just logged onto the site and discovered the font changing fairies have been and sprinkled Verdana dust around. So much easier to read.

Just a note about Guto's reference to Screenplays being required in Courier. It's worth noting that screenplays have masses of white space around any text. In that context I find Courier very readable.
Comment by Ian Darlington-Roberts on March 28, 2010 at 9:29
nice Tom, I think it's much better a lot easier on the eye.
Comment by Tom Beardshaw on March 28, 2010 at 4:50
Cheers Guto... all fonts seem to have really interesting histories!

As you can see, I've changed the body text in the site to Verdana, and left the headers as Courier. We had over 150 votes, and 85% of people voted to change the font. Nearly 60% of all voters preferred Verdana.

I hope that the changes make the site more readable and usable for it's members... and if you have any more comments on the site design/font... feel free to share them.

Cheers for all your comments.
Comment by Guto Evans on March 24, 2010 at 0:04
Don't shoot the messenger!

Some interesting Courier fact here....
What the font designer Howard G. "Bud" Kettlerhad to say...
Kettler was once quoted about how the name was chosen. The font was nearly released with the name "Messenger." After giving it some thought, Kettler said, "A letter can be just an ordinary messenger, or it can be the courier, which radiates dignity, prestige, and stability."


Howard G. "Bud" Kettler Died 17 September 1999 , designer of what is probably, now, the world's most familiar typeface. If crystal goblet type design is your ideal, then surely Courier is the most successful of all monospace typefaces. Comparing it to other monospaces, it seems to me to have vastly more even color in the greatest proportion of letter combinations, and the highest degree of what we might call 'scansion', borrowing a term from literary analysis, and which we might define as the ability to scan lines of text readily.

"It can be absorbed quickly, with little relative effort, which is why it is still the preferred font for screenplay drafts (many film festivals require copies of scripts in Courier 12). "

Bill Troop's posting to the Type.


Goodbye Courier! but are we following the same steps as the US government in 2004?

....hope you enjoy these bits of info!
Comment by Kate Strudwick on March 23, 2010 at 6:33
I think i prefer the Verdana to Arial, but both are easier to read than the existing font.
Comment by max holloway on March 23, 2010 at 6:01
i think its more about layout than anything else this a bit heavier or bigger , and an easier layout would do it for me , it does feel un professional which i like!!! and suggests saving a lot of money on a blinking web designer ....and why not...mutter mutter
Comment by Tom Beardshaw on March 23, 2010 at 4:00
@Hywel - we have to optimise the site for different monitor sizes. Try increasing the size of the font - check the FAQ page for instructions.

@Tracey visit the NTW01 group and you'll find links to reviews from around the web... or check out our monitoring site for mentions and reviews of the show on blogs, news sites and social networks
Comment by Mark Heseltine on March 23, 2010 at 3:36
a proportional font would be easier to read

image block identification

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