They say a picture is worth a thousand words. On the Internet, a strong combination of visual imagery and text is what gets the attention of users. That’s why there’s so much emphasis on web design when it comes to attracting users. But one aspect of design that website owners tend to overlook is typography. Typography is almost like the middle ground between a great image and a strong copy. Here are some ideas on how to use typography to get more engagement, traffic and web conversions.
1. Design with Big Typography
An emerging trend in the web design community is big typography. There are many designers and companies that are foregoing the visual elements of their website and using big typography to call out and communicate with their users. This approach to design works because users simply cannot ignore your message. The best designs also tend to carefully format their design using a visual hierarchy so that the most important message is featured prominently.
2. Use Custom Typography in Ads
A big problem that marketers face is breaking users out of ad blindness. After a certain point, users tend to ignore ads and view them all similarly. A big part of this is due to the way that ads are designed. By using modern and custom typography in your advertising creative, you’ll have a better chance at breaking them out of ad blindness. If you’re looking for higher click throughs and more traffic from your ads, it pays to experiment with your typography.4
3. Feature Unique Typography in Content
If you’re looking to make a website that’s driven by content, you owe it to yourself to do everything possible to make your content stand out. The obvious thing to do is to work on the quality of your content but using modern typography can also help. If you look at the best accounts on websites like Pinterest, you’ll notice that they use custom typography for their visual content. The most popular infographics also use modern typography as it helps in guiding the visual design.
4. Make Your Website Stand Out
An important thing to realize if you’re trying to engage users is the fact that they are inundated by the same type of website designs. Most websites use the same basic fonts, formatting, layouts and colors. By using modern typography, your text will seem to jump out to them more due to the unique way your message is being presented. It will break them out the same type of ad blindness pattern that Internet users develop when they’re browsing websites.
5. Create Unique Call to Actions
A good way to make your typography lead to more actions is to use it in your links and call to actions. You can insert custom handwriting as visual cues, use unique typography to highlight navigation menus and make your call to actions stand out. A good example of a website that does this is Sharpie. They use custom typography to categorize their link navigation. They also use it in their visual content and ads to draw clicks to specific parts of their site.
3 Tips for Using Modern Typography
The ideas above should give you a lot to think about in regards to how you’re going to use modern typography for your business and website. But if you’re trying to make a website and want to use modern typography to enhance its design, you need to follow certain rules to make it fit in with your site’s design. It’s not a simple matter of choosing one you like from a font database and switching your entire site’s text over to the typography.
Here are some tips for using modern typography the right way.
1. Make Sure the Typography Aligns with Your Brand/Theme
Using modern or custom typography just for the sake of it can lead to an inconsistent design. You want to make sure it matches the theme of your overall web design or the visual aspects of your brand. For example, if you have a fun site, you can be more loose with what font you use. But if you have an authoritative brand that communicates in a serious voice, you may want to use typography that’s legible, contemporary and bold to communicate the qualities of the brand.
2. Ensure It Translates Well in Mobile
For many websites, mobile users can make up 20 to 40 percent of their traffic. That’s why you have to ensure that the typography you’re using looks good in smaller screens. You also have to account for the browsers that the mobile devices use. Some of them have trouble showing custom typography if they’re not images. So before you make the final decisions on your typography, look online for a mobile device preview tool to see how the typography on your website will appear.
3. Use a Visual Hierarchy
Modern typography can often feel overbearing if it’s not used correctly. A big part of making it work is the formatting, especially if you’re using multiple fonts on your website. To make it easier to process the text, use a visual hierarchy to guide the users’ eyes. Use color, space and size to draw attention to the most important part of the content and to lead the users from one point to the next. The best way to understand how this is done is to study sites using big typography design.
These tips should guide your use of typography in the right direction. By using modern typography properly and integrating it into all your online activities, you’ll be able to create more engagement, generate more actions and drive more traffic to your website.