The mobile apps user interface (UI) is built up of various elements like tab bars, navigation bars, side menus and much more. These elements are equally backed up by graphic elements or icons. In addition, these visual elements are used for easy communication too. Experts reveal that approximately 95 percent of all communication happening on the internet is through text. That’s exactly what we are coming to.
Reading a piece of app text can be really complex. We see various signs, images and characters, in innumerable combinations of words and in endless orders of sentences. Readers give a certain context to all the combinations and signs. Once you read it, you wouldn’t really have to think about it further or put any effort into the same.
Key Areas to Focus On
Readability
As Oliver Reichenstein of Information Architects commented in 2006, “95% of the information on the web is written language.” The statement has become a guiding principle for all kinds of web based projects, including apps. It also highlights the importance of readability.
The purpose of app design is to impress users with colours, visuals and texts providing a concise UI and adding to a better UX. As stated before, we communicate primarily through text. That clearly determines the importance of how we present texts.
Text Size
In the iOS Human Interface Guidelines Apple clearly stated, “If users cannot read the world in your app, it does not matter how beautiful the typography is.” There is a recommended font size for all mobile devices, and for iOS the ideal size is between 11 points and 17 points. However, size is not the only thing to consider. Any website usually has an average of 60 to 75 characters length per line, whereas apps on mobile devices have 35 to 50 characters. Lines with crowded words can be difficult to follow; likewise, too short lines break the natural rhythm of reading. The idea is to strike the perfect balance.
Space
For smaller screen sizes, such as in mobile apps, it is more important to give words and letters the room to breathe, both horizontally and vertically. Simply put, adding more space between and around type while designing apps for small screens can make a difference. Add more room to margins so there’s always a natural line the space where the display of the room ends and new text begins.
Adding extra space of 20 percent between the lines can be helpful. Smaller type with additional spacing is generally easier to read.
Contrast
Maintaining perfect contrast is the key to make text legible. Mind the contrast by starting with a black text and white background, which is highly recommended. After this, the point colours can be easily added to suit the app’s visual language the way you want.
But, always maintain the contrast pattern from white and black.
Responsiveness
Having responsive typography throughout the app makes the typing resizable in accordance with the screen size as well as user controls. It also includes optimized line lengths of the screen based on its width.
Designed using ems, rems or pixels, responsive type has different unit of measurement that defines the connection between fonts used on apps and at other points.
It really matters because it can give users an enriching experience, making it easier to adapt to the screen, irrespective of size.
Related: All You Need to Know About Planning a Strategy for Mobile First
Fonts are crucial for an app in terms of size, colour and type because of the size of mobile screens. You have to optimize it to give the best experience to users.