Fonts and their effect on website users

One of the most important (and often overlooked) area of web design is the use of text sizing and font choice. Many inexperienced designers fail to realize the effect these can have on the visitor's initial experience on their site pages. This in turn may cause a great effect on traffic conversions and the bounce rate of your site visitors.

Of course, the language you use throughout your website needs to be informative, make sense, and be of interest to your visitors. However, if this "wonderful content" is wrapped in a text size that is too large or small, and your users find it difficult to read, then those users are likely to leave your site and not return again. Equally, if you have given thought and consideration to your text sizing and font style, then this may help improve the duration your visitors stay on your site pages and possibly their return rate.

Preferences for visual appearance will always vary from person to person and the readability of a typeface may determine its appropriate use on a particular audience. Each typeface will produce some form of visual emotion to the user, and some fonts can portray a "take me seriously" emotion, while others a "relaxed" feeling while reading the text.

If you were going for a job interview, you might take time to dress up accordingly for the job-role. Presentation is everything; and the same goes for the typefaces used in your web pages. Typefaces attract attention; they set a tone and emotion to the text they embellish. Change your typeface and you can go from creating a casual feeling in your web pages to a formal one, unorganized to stylish, old fashioned to modern, and so on.

Typefaces are here to serve the text. They should be easy to read (especially when used in body text) and create a subtle style that does not overpower the reader. A number of font websites categorize their fonts into useful groups. If you would like assistance in choosing a font for your website, take a look at the font assistance tool at http://www.esperfonto.com/.