atw: Re: Literature Review: Serif or Sans Serif Typefaces?
- From: Peter G Martin <peterm_5@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 2 Aug 2010 12:18:08 +1000 (EST)
Let me put this another way...
Much of what many see as a conflict of opinions on the quantification of
various font choices centres on the old problem that it is not so much that
there are different results from the same tests as that the tests are measuring
different things.
It's a bit like saying there's a conflict between findings that 40% of the
population say they are going to vote for the ALP and 69% think the ALP will
win... There are no conflicts: it's just that there are two different things
involved here, and two quite different questions being asked.
By same token, in the font stakes, "Readability", "Legibility", "Comprehension"
and just Good Old "Looks Better" are often categories which are similarly
mutually-exclusive, or nearly so, although they are frequently lumped together
as though they really mean the same thing.
They don't, and in a sense, there is really no conflict between different
results obtained in different categories here. They are simply measuring
different things, which really can't be compared.
The problem is that some of us regard those tests which measure readers views
on "attractiveness", "beauty" etc of font styles to be mildly interesting but
(almost) totally irrelevant to the issue of which font should you use as a
technical writer.
Similarly, I would argue that some of the other tests which measure the
visibility of characteristics of a particular symbol in a particular font in
low visibility situations as also being interesting but (largely) irrelevant.
(How nice is a sans-serif "M"?)
Confession time: I like beer; I like looking at naked women. I find both
"attractive". Invite me to come to a lecture on a complex topic and tell me
that there'll be free beer and the lecture will be delivered by a beautiful and
nude female lecturer, and you'll have my attention, and a high likelihood of an
attendance.
However, when I arrive and take in all the goodies of the lecture environment,
I would suggest that, while I may later remember the event in general as a
Lifetime Experience, I will probably recall relatively few details of the
actual lecture topic.
(Ok, perhaps a highlight or two if for some reason the lecture is about say,
the application of the Law of Gravity and a few issues to do with conservation
of energy and momentum....)
Presumably we write technical documentation so that people will understand and
recall areas of technical complexity. So the ultimate test is: does the reader
understand and recall the information correctly?
That's what comprehension tests are about. They're not about whether you
enjoyed the beer and the sights.
There still seem to be be swathes of (particularly) US writers who have latched
onto "the beer and naked women" roles of particular fonts, and keep missing the
point. Of course, in extreme cases, it's obvious that if you have extreme
difficulty in reading something, you won't understand it very well. But that's
at the extremity, and deals with exceptions, not more general experience.
And it still doesn't follow that if you find two different fonts are about the
same in some technical measure of "clarity" or apparent "ease of reading" that
the material they convey is understood equally. The way to find out if they
are understood equally is to run tests on understanding (comprehension tests).
And it's a pain in the bum that so much attention gets paid to "readability"
and "legibility" and so few tests have ever been published on effects of font
choices on (measured) comprehension.
<And a Hi! and cheerio to all those out there who've been here before...>
-Peter M
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