ElementsDaily

These days typography has been redefined to what we all in the web world refer to as “fonts.” And “fonts” means everything from the family of fonts or type faces (Arial, Times New Roman, Verdana) to the font size (a “big” font or a “little” font or actual point sizes – did you know there are 72 points to an pica, 12 picas to an inch?), to the color (a “red” font).

Typography refers to the technique of laying out text on a page – arranging the type (font, point size, line length) and adjusting the space around it (letter spacing, kerning, leading). Typically, it’s easier to recognize these arrangements in printed works – pages of a book or magazine, to ads and posters, packaging and labels. Typesetters were really the “OG” html coders. Back when there were actual type houses, typesetters’ codes directed exactly where and how the type appeared using point and pica measures – and the codes were similar to html.

Web design has come a long way with typography and creating better options for designers to design with type. Most designers create with placement of photos, logos, color and often, flash or other types of movement on the web page. Website designs that are inspired by typography are few and far between.

Designers generally use “web-safe” fonts for the site content. This way the content is displayed in the correct font for the majority of computer systems and browsers. If the content is published in a font the user doesn’t have, browsers will automatically choose an alternative font, often defaulting to Arial or Times New Roman. The most widely recognized web fonts are Arial, Verdana, Trebuchet MS, (sans serif fonts); and Times New Roman, Courier and Georgia (serif fonts).

So how does all of this typography stuff affect your website and design? Good typography design is transparent, really. The content should be easy to read, easy on the eyes and easy to follow. The type shouldn’t distract or confuse the user or take away from the composition of the page.

Some typographical details to consider:

Yes, it Matters

If your users are able to see and read your content, you’ll get your message across so much better! So, mouse-size type doesn’t work for many users…even if you are uber-minimal and only have a few words to say. Consider 10 point being the smallest size you use, but 12 point may be a better point size overall for most readers. Not everyone has bionic vision… If you choose to use a smaller size, generally sans serif fonts are easier to read because of their simplicity.

Get Lost in It

White space, breathing space, negative space – let your users’ eyes rest, let your type speak and tell your message. A good designer is able to manipulate this space in the site to direct your user’s attention to the text and content. Consider the space between your lines of text as well…it’s called leading. Tighter leading makes for a denser paragraph structure and the ascenders and descenders of the letters can get tangled up in the lines above or below. While this may be a creative effect for a few lines or maybe a short paragraph, it would be hazardous for an entire body of text. The larger the leading size, the more breathable room between your lines of text and the deeper your area of content will be. The downside of too much leading is that your paragraph begins to look like rows of text rather than a paragraph. Further, you may be sacrificing web page real estate with larger leading. But, sometimes it’s the space between that counts.

Yes, it Still Matters

Giving your content headers, subheads, using different and varying sizes for text helps the user maneuver though the page. Mixing up the type faces/fonts (a sans serif header with a serif subhead or sans serif header with serif body copy) also gives the user cues about page content. Use these styles consistently throughout your site so your users recognize these items easily – it will help the skimmers, especially! A design that makes it easier to understand information generally keeps users on the site longer.

Color Me Easy to Read

Keep your content easy for the user to read, keeping colors in fonts to a minimum. Generally, stay away from light colors – hard for anyone to read. If your site is informational, people with poor eye sight will have difficulty with light type on a textured background – help get your message across by using a light or no background and darker text….black is good. Busy backgrounds are no help for readability at all…stay away!

If It’s Legible is it Readable?

Readability and legibility are not the same, but the terms are often used interchangeably. Readability refers to comprehensibility, content and language – how easily a written language is actually read and understood. Some factors that affect this are awkward grammar; use of esoteric words or colloquialisms; writing style – very long sentences or paragraphs are less readable than shorter ones.

Legibility addresses how easily text can be read – the size and appearance of type. So mouse type is not very legible nor is a long paragraph set in all caps (the logic being that lower case letters have more unique shapes thus forming recognizable words). Font design affects legibility and there’s the on-going debate between which is more legible: serif vs. sans serif fonts. Other typography factors that can affect text legibility:

• ~ Leading
• ~ Kerning – space between letters based on character pairs: for example, AV
• ~ Letter spacing – space between letters; tracking refers to increasing or decreasing space evenly regardless of the letters)
• ~ Word spacing
• ~ Colors – contrast in background and text
• ~ Text justification – left, right, center, justified
• ~ Roman vs. italics – Roman – “regular” upright text is supposedly more legible

More and more, text printed on paper will take a backseat to internet-based text…or at least text read on a computer. Writing will always exist, but the canvas it appears on will continue to shift to the digital world. Technology will advance standards further to allow us to design with and use more varied fonts (web) safely. And a wider variety of typographic elements opens up a different world of imaginative and creative design concepts. However, whatever the medium, standards of good typography design, legibility and readability will always apply.

After Elements developed a model for creating and maximizing franchisees’ web presence, we’ve discovered one of the chief concerns is how to integrate franchisee and franchisor goals. The challenge from both perspectives is generating leads from local searches on Google and other search engines, and perhaps other untapped potential value of the broader network of franchisees.

As a franchisee, are you interested in evaluating these new marketplaces? Great! You’re still here! You’re in the right place.

You currently have a website, right? (Just nod.)…

And your website is a microsite of the franchisor’s website with a single page for each franchise? (Still nodding?)

As a franchisor, are franchisees dissatisfied with your corporate website solution that you’ve paid a lot of money to develop? From that dissatisfaction, franchisees violate brand agreements by creating their own websites to improve their local presence in their local market? (Nodding again?…)

****Because of this, your brand control is compromised because franchisee owners are impatient with what you’re offering them to print news in their local markets, capture local Google search results with local content. As a result they create their own website…accurate, so far?

What about marketing? Are you doing pay-per-click (PPC) or Adwords campaigns? If not, why not? You know your competitors are spending money to capture PPC results, right?

If you are spending on PPC, is the expense across all franchisees or just a limited number? If it’s across all franchisees, you’re probably spending thousands on AdWords campaigns; it’s a pricey solution.

Consider this: research indicates most users will IGNORE the Adwords ad in the right sidebar when they can find RELEVANT search results organically in the regular top 10-20 searches. Do you really think your Ad Words campaign is working efficiently and effectively for you?

How sophisticated is your lead distribution and tracking mechanism? You collect an email and redirect it to the franchise. Is there any way to track what happens from there? What level of ROI on leads can you establish for each franchise? Would you like a better approach?

With the typical web marketing system, each of these problems has its own independent solution, costing you and your franchisees thousands to set-up, maintain, and – if lucky – control. Most likely, you’re company and brand is STILL FAILING to show up in Google and still failing to satisfy the problem of creating localized content for franchisees to display awards, portfolios, case studies, local club memberships, etc.

THE CHALLENGES FOR FRANCHISE WEB MARKETING

• ~The Franchisor:
  • ~Must control their most valuable asset – their brand
  • ~Must be able to track changes and performance
  • ~Must facilitate local marketing to and for franchisees

  ~The Franchisee:

  • ~Must have a highly professional and easy to update website
  • ~Must show up in search engines to compete with locally business
  • ~Must be able to easily choose to participate in Franchisor sponsored marketing or initiate their own local marketing campaigns

Can your existing website, SEO expert, AdWords campaign, or single-page website provide affordable and effective solutions to these challenges? Unless you’re passing the Google tests we run, we can tell you it’s likely you need some better strategies so you’re not FAILING in areas where you should be WINNING.

OUR SOLUTION:

• ~ElementsLocalTM
  • ~Provides family of fully autonomous, networked websites for all franchisees while providing Franchisor control
• ~Client Example
  • ~Manage brand look and feel of websites and local marketing campaigns
  • ~Manage brand messaging and content
  • ~Initiate national email campaigns with advanced tracking

REAL RESULTS:

We’re getting real-world results in record time.

Dig deeper into the ElementsLocal software platform and learn how to use the POWER of your FRANCHISE NETWORK to DOMINATE YOUR INDUSTRY.