Thirteenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

Abstract

The paper introduces a recent experimental study aimed at understanding if and how typography and fonts design can influence or help dyslexic subjects in reading tasks. Exploring and comparing state of the art both in font design and previous studies already conducted in the field, the study investigates three aspects: i) firstly if the font utilized in the layout influences the reading performances; ii) if adopting font families intentionally designed for dyslexic subjects help them to better perceiving and understanding texts; iii) if digital devices compared to printed paper reveal different reading performances. The experiment involved both dyslexics and non-dyslexics subjects and focused on the ability of users to recognize words and no-meaning-words. Eight different fonts were tested to have a comparison among font traditionally considered good: Times New Roman, Simoncini Garamond, Verdana, Futura, Comic Sans, OpenDyslexic, EasyReading, Biancoenero. The last three fonts have been intentionally designed and optimized for people affected by dyslexia, two san-serif with a low legibility rate, two serifs, and classic typefaces, and handwriting font. Test have been presented both on paper and on a digital display according to measurable parameters: speed and accuracy of the reading. Results have been discussed and compared with existing literature in the field.