The effective web design process has many aspects. Each one might seem trivial, like it may not make a difference, but in reality, every little detail has an impact on your overall web design. One often overlooked detail in effective web design is font.

If you have gone about creating your website the correct way, you will have a lot of content. After all, as many professionals say, “Content is king.” However, as we discussed last week, hopefully it is arranged tastefully and does not end up looking cluttered at first glance. As you well know, that first glance is extremely important; it could be all it takes for a user to either decide to leave your page in a hurry, or to explore every aspect of it.

For the users who do appreciate your effective web design and decide to stay on the site, what makes them stay? Have you ever pondered this important decision? Aside from organization, loading time, and worthiness of the content, font plays a major role in this all too important decision.

There are two types of font: serif and sans serif. The serif name is given to those fonts with “tails” at the end of some of the letters. This type is popular in the business world, as serif fonts like Times New Roman, Georgia, and Courier New are often seen in newspapers, newsletters, and reports. However, such font-types are often not the best for online writing, unless you plan to print it out. They may be better left to the business world.

Example of Serif Font in Newspaper:

Sans serif is the type of font with no serifs; one easy way to remember this distinguishing feature is that “sans” means “without” in French. According to the definition, such fonts do not have the little tail-like entity at the end of some letters. Some examples of this are Arial and Verdana. Such fonts are easier to read on a computer, so they are the best to use on a website.

Example of San Serif Font on Website:

Overall, to really possess an effective web design, you must think about the mood you are trying to convey on your website. If you would like a casual, fun mood, it may be best to use Comic Sans. If your site is meant to be funny or playful, you could go with an even more unique font, like Poornut. Obviously, do not use that one if you have a lot of text; however, if you just have a few bullet points, it is okay to use. If, like most people, you want a more professional page but still want a different font than the typical popular ones, you could use Microsoft Sans Serif or Trebuchet MS. These are both easy to read online, yet different from the font on most other websites.

Ultimately, the font choices are up to you, but if you want visitors to your site to be able to get the information they want as soon as possible, you need to think about selecting the fonts that are easiest to read. Effective web design demands sans serif fonts.