Hi, I don't know the research or have any citations, but I believe the research essentially says: bigger font is easier to read and/or is read faster. Of course, you are trading off large font size with fitting more information into your text region or above the fold, or whatever your constraints are. I think getting your content so that it fits into your overall design scheme and makes for a good user experience is the main issue you need to consider and/or test. Not to mention that my very general statement must be taken with a grain of salt, as *extremely* large font might be disconcerting to users.
Most sites set the font pretty small. Hopefully someone who really needs enlarged font (e.g., w/ low vision) has set their browser to change the font across the board. Therefore, sticking with convention - assuming you want your site to be conventional in this way - seems advisable. If your site is aimed at helping ppl with low vision adjust thier browser settings, well, you probobly would start with larger font. Yohan's guidelines seem about right, but I would use a serif-font for printed materials. -Jesse ----- Original Message ---- From: Nick Gassman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: IXDA list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2008 2:28:45 AM Subject: [IxDA Discuss] What's the right default font size for a website? Is there any research on font sizes? Yes, you should build your site so users can change the size, but in reality many who would benefit from doing so don't know that you can, even if you provide the tools. You need to start with an appropriate default. What should that default be? * Nick Gassman - Usability and Standards Manager - http://ba.com * * I vote for reply-to to go to the list* ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
