[Sigia-l] increase font size stat

[Andy Burnette]

Michael Bernard et. al. has done a lot of research regarding font size and
age, as well as font type, etc.  The conclusion is that 14-point fonts were
more legible, promoted faster reading and were preferred for older users.

The point the research makes is that the older you get, smaller fonts become
harder to read (but not impossible). Personally I would build the site using
14-point since your site is for an older audience, but this is likely to
cause some conflicts with designers (it is a pretty big font size). So I
would use this research as justification that the ability to increase font
size is necessary.  It's a good compromise since the desingers can use a
smaller font for first impression, but the user can increase it for
readability.

Sorry to say I don't have any stats on how many older folks "actually" use
larger fonts.  Hope this helps.

_______________________________________ 
Andrew Burnette



-----Original Message-----
From: James Muntone [mailto:jmuntone at simstar.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2003 9:06 AM
To: sigia-l at asis.org
Subject: [Sigia-l] increase font size stat



I'm building a site for older folks, 50+ and thought it would be nice to
include an "increase font size" button that calls a style sheet with larger
type.

My client has asked if I have any stats on how many older folk (not that 50
is "old") resort to using larger fonts (do we really must validate every
little thing???? sheeesh!)

Does anyone have any data on this?

-j


*************************************************************
Jim Muntone
Senior Information Architect
 
SimStar
202 Carnegie Center | Princeton, NJ  08540
P: 609.378.0148 | F: 609.378.0222
www.simstar.com

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