Why Typography Does Matter

In my last post, I gave a few reasons why typography doesn’t matter, and in this one I’ll be arguing why typography does matter. A lot.

If we take this argument and reduce it to its simplest form, basically what I’m asking is: does design matter to the average user? Yes. They may not realize it, but the design of a product or website is what drives them to click on a link, or to press a particularly tactile button. Good design isn’t noticed.

If we zoom in a little more, if you will, you can see that typography is no different. Chances are, a user won’t particularly notice an excellent font choice, and that’s how you know you got it right. If a user doesn’t notice the typography, that means that it fits naturally with the style of the overall design.

The average user will only notice typography if it’s particularly unreadable or ugly. It’s the same with a bad design. Only a particularly bad design will be noticed by the average, non-designer user.

Of course, with all this talk of the average user, I have to talk a little bit about the non-average users. AKA the designers.

Chances are good that if you are reading this, you are either a designer or at least have an idea of why design is important. This assumption being true, I can also guess that you probably care about typography, or at the very least understand its benefits.

In the designer vs non-designer split, you’d probably land squarely in the designer area.

So I’ve proven why typography matters to the average user, or the non-designers. Now, the critical question is: Designers, do you care about typography?