Slides from Beth E. Koch's presentation, "Perception of Typefaces: A Quantitative Visual Methodology" at SOTA's TypeCon, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, August 5, 2012

1. Perception of typefaces:!
A quantitative visual methodology
Beth E. Koch, Ph.D.!
Assistant Professor of Design!
University of Minnesota Duluth

3. Brain

4. “Ultimately the key to understanding !
all visual communication lies in the !
neurological workings of the brain”
(Barry, 2005).

5. Not much is empirically known !
about how people comprehend !
visual systems such as !
graphic design and typography.

6. People seem to intuitively decipher !
the meaning of typefaces
(Van Leeuwen, 2005)

7. Designing Emotions!
!
Pieter Desmet, Industrial Design Professor !
Delft University of Technology

8. ”I wonder if we need to temporarily !
put aside our talk of brand, strategy !
and execution, and consider !
our power to influence emotion.”
!
Eric Karjaluoto smashLAB
!

9. People respond emotionally …
to art (Wittgenstein, 2005),
to design (Norman, 2004), and
to products (Desmet, 2002). !
To begin to understand how people respond
emotionally to individual design features, this !
study investigated how people interpreted
different typestyles (alphabet designs).

11. Q1: Does viewing specific typefaces produce!
emotional responses?
Q2: When viewing typestyle designs, do all people !
feel the same emotions?
Q3: Are certain emotions predominantly associated!
with the formative design features of typefaces—!
differences in classification (serif or sans serif), !
terminal construction (angular or rounded), !
character width (condensed or extended), and !
weight (light or bold)?

12. C
M
O

13. STUDIES ABOUT THE !
MEANING OF TYPEFACES

14. What are we studying?
Congeniality (adjectives)
Personality characteristics
Emotional connotation
Connotative messages
Emotional meaning
Dress
Descriptions

15. Product emotion research !
Desmet (2002)
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔

16. No common presentation format:
Introduction to the Declaration of Independence!
— Poffenberger &Franken (1923)
“Now is the time for all good men… ” — Davis & Smith (1933)
Artificial languages “ere sasesuth wid oteren bo” — Weaver (1949)
Format to approximate English — Wendt (1968)
Alphabets (ABC… abc… ?+!@...) — Kastl &Child (1968), !
Tannenbaum et al. (1964), Benton (1979)
“Lorem ipsum” greek —Morrison (1986)
Typeface sampler — Koch (2011)

23. Participants

24. Analysis! Paired t-Tests α = .05
and!
Findings
People respond to type designs !
with emotion.
!
Certain emotions are associated !
with the formative design features !
of typefaces.
!

25. 1. People responded to type designs !
with emotion rather than indifference.
2. People agreed about the emotions !
associated with specific typefaces.
3. Certain emotions were associated with!
the formative features of typefaces.
4. Of the six positively-valenced emotions, !
no significance was found for pride or hope.
5. Of the six negatively-valenced emotions,!
no significance was found for shame.

26. 1. People responded to type designs !
with emotion rather than indifference.
2. People agreed about the emotions !
associated with specific typefaces.
3. Certain emotions were associated with!
the formative features of typefaces.
4. Of the six positively-valenced emotions, !
no significance was found for pride or hope.
5. Of the six negatively-valenced emotions,!
no significance was found for shame.

27. 1. People responded to type designs !
with emotion rather than indifference.
2. People agreed about the emotions !
associated with specific typefaces.
3. Certain emotions were associated with!
the formative features of typefaces.
4. Of the six positively-valenced emotions, !
no significance was found for pride or hope.
5. Of the six negatively-valenced emotions,!
no significance was found for shame.

28. IMPORTANCE OF THE METHOD
Avoids problems of self-report!
Allows report of multiple feelings and!
co-occuring feelings!
Avoids problems with cognition of !
language and reading!
Forms keystone with emotion research

29. IMPLICATIONS
For individuals
For practitioners
For society

30. It is increasingly important for all people !
to have some degree of design understanding, !
not only to decipher messages, !
but to reciprocate with !
visually appropriate responses.

31. IMPLICATIONS
For design researchers

32. CONCLUSION