Do you need to convince a customer to complete an application form? Or, for a non-profit, do you need volunteers for a charity event? In both cases, you will be more successful if you describe the task in a simple, easy to read typeface. Research by Hyunjin Song and Norbert Schwarz shows that the way we perceive information can be affected dramatically by how simple or complex the font is. In particular, their work found that a simple font was more likely to get the readers to make a commitment. Here’s the whole story…
The researchers expected that getting people to commit to an exercise regimen would depend on how long they thought the workout would take. A longer estimated time would be a bigger commitment, and people would be less likely to sign up. That’s all simple logic, but Song and Schwarz decided to test two groups of subjects. The first group saw the exercises described in a simple font (Arial), while the second group saw the exact same text presented in a harder to read font, Brush.
The results were astounding – the subjects who read the same instructions in the hard to read font estimated that the regimen would take nearly twice as long, 15.1 minutes vs. 8.2 minutes. Needless to say, the group that thought the exercise would take only 8 minutes was significantly more likely to commit to the regimen. (See If It’s Hard to Read, It’s Hard to Do – Processing Fluency Affects Effort Prediction and Motivation.)
Song and Schwarz performed a similar experiment involving a sushi recipe. Subjects who saw the instructions in Arial estimated that preparation would take 5.6 minutes, while those who read the directions in Mistral, a more complicated font, expect it to take 9.3 minutes.
The clear Neuromarketing takeaway is that if you need to convince a customer, client, or donor to perform some kind of task, you should describe that task in a simple, easy to read font. Since this phenomenon is related to the concept of cognitive fluency, you should also make the type size easy to read and use simple words and sentence structure. These steps will minimize the perceived effort needed to accomplish the task, and your success rate will increase.
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Twitter: alexbigaiski
Says:
March 4th, 2010 at 8:51 am
O love simple things. You don’t have to put things that aren’t necessary. Great.
March 4th, 2010 at 9:41 am
Wow, that’s fascinating. Obviously, the second font is harder to read, from a usability standpoint, but I didn’t realize the cognitive implications. Great food for thought.
Twitter: charliedrummond
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March 4th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
This is a real insight into page design in general – anything that breaks down information content, makes it clearer – makes it seem easier,reasonable, agreeable.
Spam site owners (selling ‘eBooks’ on SEO, PPC etc) seem to have known this for ages.
On the upside the underlying priciple lends support to the use of clean fonts, orderly grid layouts etc – which I instinctively see as good design basics.
One final comment – try this with your emails as well – simple, short sentences, with a line space between each are much more likely to get read.
March 4th, 2010 at 6:59 pm
I wouldn’t have thought of that ever, it really does have a big effect!
March 4th, 2010 at 10:38 pm
Great insight. So does it follow that if you want to convince somebody that a process is complex or sophisticated, a harder to read font would help?
March 4th, 2010 at 11:25 pm
Yours is the great insight, Tom. Indeed, there is data that confirms what you suggest. If for some reason you want to increase the apparent complexity/difficulty (e.g., to justify a higher price), the more complex font would likely help.
Roger
March 4th, 2010 at 11:30 pm
@Tom – that’s something that used to come up a lot in human factors research. If, for example, a big, complicated machine had a tiny button to turn it on, people would get uncomfortable. Put a giant lever or a complicated keypad on it, and they would be more at ease, even though the machine was now harder to turn on. Our expectations of how complex we think something SHOULD be can be important – sometimes, more complex is actually better.
March 14th, 2010 at 9:58 am
I wish I had realizes it earlier____ nevertheless its never too late.
In my future publications specially for children i should be more particular about the simplicity of fonts.
In the beginning when I started on computers I was greatly fascinated by fancy fonts and tried to use them in all my writings, but gradually it dawned on me that there aren’t many people who appreciate it.
Thanks,
Rukhsana
Twitter: YourNetBizCafe
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April 1st, 2010 at 10:25 am
Great study: Arial it is!
Best,
Ana Hoffman
April 13th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
Thanks for the great info! Being a graphic designer, I understood that subconsciously, but never was able to put it into words.
Twitter: Elaine_Fogel
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April 13th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
I’m not surprised. Sometimes, all it takes is testing readability and comprehension by showing forms to a few objective people. Thanks for sharing this study.
April 13th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
There’s always Comic Sans, Ana!
Dina, I think it’s good that you sensed the effort needed to read the more complex font. All too often designers work for a “look” and what the user does with the page is secondary.
Roger
May 6th, 2010 at 9:01 am
Is there a study that you know of that addresses the use of ALL CAPS in text attempting to be either persuasive or instructive?
May 6th, 2010 at 9:18 am
I haven’t seen one, Ron, but I can think of two reasons that all capital letters would be less effective for either persuasion or instruction:
1) For most people, text in capitals is harder to read than normal case text, so you have the same problem as hard-to-read fonts.
2) Since the early days of online communities, email, and social networks, use of all caps has been associated with “shouting” and/or clueless newbies. Neither is positive.
I think occasional use of all caps to emphasize a word, phrase, or sentence would be fine. Personally, I’d avoid use of all caps for whole text blocks.
Roger