SIGIA-L Mail Archives: Re: SIGIA-L: Fonts for online reading
Re: SIGIA-L: Fonts for online reading
From: Mark Dellenbaugh (MDellenbaugh_at_austin.rr.com)
Date: Thu Mar 14 2002 - 11:57:56 EST
The UI Design Update Newsletter: Insights from Human Factors International -
February, 2002 has three articles on typography, including "What is the best
font size and font style for Web sites?"
http://www.humanfactors.com/library/feb02.asp
Mark Dellenbaugh
Information Architect & User Experience Designer
IBM, Ease of Use Architecture and Design--Austin Texas
dellenba_at_us.ibm.com | www.ibm.com/easy
----- Original Message -----
From: twining
To: sigia-l_at_asis.org
Sent: Thursday, March 14, 2002 9:41 AM
Subject: Re: SIGIA-L: Fonts for online reading
Original Message From: Gordon Montgomery
Sent: Thursday, March 14, 2002 7:26 AM
Subject: Re: SIGIA-L: Fonts for online reading
got a URL for that?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Reply From: joanne twining, MLS, Ph.D. jtwining_at_du.edu
Unfortunately, only the citation and abstract of the D'Angelo (1991)
dissertation are available online (from the Dissertation Abstracts or the
Digital Dissertations databases, which are proprietary but generally
available to anyone with access to a University Library.) The full text of
D'Angelo's dissertation is not available anywhere online (but worth reading
considering the "graying" of the boomer generation and the emerging "old
eyes" syndrome.) I am including the abstract for you, below.
The fulltext of the print version of the two articles published in
Information Technology and Libraries (by the American Library Association's
Library and Information Technology Association) are also only available
online from proprietary databases (such as LibLit and LISA) which are also,
unfortunately, proprietary.
The good news is that the abstracts of the print version of both articles is
available directly from the LITA Journal website at
http://www.lita.org/ital/index.htm
The abstract for "Successful Web Pages: What are they and do they exist?" is
at http://www.lita.org/ital/ital1702.htm
The abstract for "Comprehension by Clicks" (a followup to the "Successful"
article) is at http://www.lita.org/ital/ital1903.html
The even better news is:
The Authors' fulltext of the "Successful" article, which synthesizes all the
published research about web design through 1997 (and has the most
comprehensive bibliography of web design research available) and establishes
the ten "D'Angelo Standards" for web design, is online at
http://www.intertwining.org/collaboratory/papers/dangelo/IT&L.html
and
The Author's fulltext (I am one of the authors) of the "Comprehension"
article, which relates use of the ten "D'Angelo Standards" for web design
(as identified in the "Successful" article) to time spent viewing a
webpage, comprehension of the content, and user preferences, and provides
empirical evidence that including the ten "D'Angelo Standards" significantly
improves comprehension, reduces user time investment, and results in
increased user preference for page design is at:
http://www.intertwining.org/twining/clicks.htm
enjoy!
/s/joanne
Here's D'Angelo's dissertation abstract from Digital Dissertations Online:
PUBLICATION NUMBER AAT 9213762
TITLE A STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE USE OF COLOR FOR TEXT IN
COMPUTER SCREEN DESIGN AND THE AGE OF THE COMPUTER USER
AUTHOR D'ANGELO, JOHN J.
DEGREE PHD
SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS
DATE 1991
PAGES 106
ADVISER MILLER, WILLIAM
SOURCE DAI-B 52/12, p. 6497, Jun 1992
SUBJECT COMPUTER SCIENCE (0984); INFORMATION SCIENCE (0723)
This study addresses an individual's performance, relating it to eyesight
changes due to the aging of the individual and to color computer screens
used for computer-based-instruction not designed specifically for older
students. This study determines how existing research in gerontology,
human-computer interface, and color use in visual graphics can be applied to
the design of computer screen displays containing color text and backgrounds
and how various color combinations will affect performance by adult learners
forty years of age and older. The results of this research provide software
developers and instructional designers guidelines to use when designing
computer screen displays for use in instructional computing settings
involving older adults. The participants came from the Dallas-Fort Worth
area. They were drawn from several environments, using an opportunity
sample. They included students from the University of North Texas, teachers
from Kent Elementary School in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent
School District, and training classes in the Plano Independent School
District. The Plano participants were teachers, administrators, and staff
personnel. Sixty participants in all were chosen. Thirty of these were
younger than forty, and thirty were forty and over. Virtually all
participants had some computer experience. Most were not experts, however.
The information received during the implementation of the data gathering
phase of this study was analyzed using a simple repeated measures analysis
of variance (ANOVA), the Chi-square test of independence, and the Chi-square
test for goodness-of-fit. Results revealed no significant difference in
performance for any of the color combinations used by either group, although
the combination on which each group performed best was different for each
group. While the results were not significant, the white on blue combination
showed the best performance and was most preferred by both groups.
Developers should either use this combination or allow the user to choose
their preferred combination.
----- Original Message -----
From: twining
To: sigia-l_at_asis.org
Cc: maadmob_at_bigpond.com
Sent: Thursday, March 14, 2002 12:33 PM
Subject: Re: SIGIA-L: Fonts for online reading
Hi. The original, empirical evidence about font (and other factors in
design for the screen) originates in the following dissertation:
D'ANGELO, JOHN J., PHD. 1991. A STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE USE
OF COLOR FOR TEXT IN COMPUTER SCREEN DESIGN AND THE AGE OF THE COMPUTER
USER. UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS, AAT 9213762 . (Dissertation Abstracts
Database)
And is expanded in these two subsequent research projects:
Successful Web Pages: What are they and do they exist? Author: D'Angelo,
John.; Little, Sherry K. Source: Information Technology and Libraries v. 17
no2 (June 1998) p. 71-8
Comprehension by Clicks: D'Angelo Standards for web page design, and time,
comprehension, and preference.
Author: D'Angelo, John.; twining, joanne. Source: Information Technology
and Libraries v. 19 no3 (Sept. 2000) p. 125-35
joanne
FOCUS ON PEACE
joanne twining, MLS, Ph.D. jtwining_at_du.edu
http://www.du.edu/~jtwining, Assistant Clinical Professor
Library & Information Science Program http://www.du.edu/LIS
College of Education, University of Denver, Colorado USA
----- Original Message -----
From: "Antony & Donna Maurer" <maadmob_at_bigpond.com>s
To: <sigia-l_at_asis.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 13, 2002 4:03 AM
Subject: SIGIA-L: Fonts for online reading
> Hi everyone,
>
> This is not quite an IA question, but...
>
> Someone asked me whether sans-serif fonts were better than serif
> fonts for material that would be read on-screen. I always use sans-
> serif, and have frequently read that sans-serif are better.
>
> I can't find the references (and IE is driving me nuts by crashing
> every time I do a journal search)!! Can anyone remember where
> this guideline came from??
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> Donna Maurer
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2
: Sun Nov 23 2003 - 22:55:05 EST
|
