I found that experimenting with typography for this assignment was much different than any other experience I have had in the past. For the most part, the challenges faced in web typography, and their solutions, are much the same as those faced in print, but you just have to go about it a different way.
The main focus of my typographic experiments related to the very specific audience I must appeal to. Fifth-graders are notorious for short attention spans. Most of them are not thrilled to do their homework and aren’t too fond of reading either. From my experience, most of them are looking for any excuse to ditch their homework and do something “fun.” Let’s not give them that excuse. Instead, let’s give them a fun typographic experience.
I found that one of the most important things to consider was readability. That’s why I decided to increase the font sizes a bit more than usual, and give plenty of leading. I also decided that variety would play a big part. I used different sizes of type, and a serif/san-serif combination to keep things from looking bland. I used the serif typeface for the body text to add to readability, and used a large all-caps heading to draw the reader into the page. Hopefully all of these elements will combine to give the little readers an excuse to stay on the page.
