Leaders in Enterprise Mobility: Typography and Why it is Important in Application Design

Breaking down mobile application development to the bare essentials requires images and text. Images will be pushed through via web services from an organization’s content management system (CMS). However, text is all at the mercy of the mobile application developer. Typography is the art and technique of arranging type, type design, and modifying type glyphs. In mobile application design, the art of typography is presenting extremely important. In user centric design, one must present text to the user that not only stands out on the screen but is very readable and comprehendible by the mobile application’s end user.

I was talking with PGA golf pro Dave Anderson and asked what device he has. Dave responded, “I have a Blackberry and I hate it. I can’t read the text on it as I can’t see it”. Dave hits a small white ball for a living, so if he has problems reading text on a mobile device then I am sure others have this same problem.

If a user can’t read the text or information presented within a mobile application, then how will that user take the action that the mobile application developer desires? Simply put, they can’t. In fact, with 10,000 baby boomers hitting the retirement age of 65 each day, typography will become even more critical in the future. Best-in-class mobile applications have the ability to enlarge or blow up text with the touch of a simple button on the screen displaying the text. Unfortunately, this feature is currently limited to text with heavy applications, such as news applications. Why would an application developer not include this feature on new apps, like a mobile commerce application when viewing product details? This would allow for all customers to view all text elements on a page without eye strain. For the business owners, think how you will increase your conversion rates by not limiting users via small unreadable text. The use of best practices in typography incorporated into mobile application design will become standard fare in next generation customer facing mobile applications.

As leaders in enterprise mobility, Smartsoft Mobile Solutions is focused on providing world class typography features into mobile application development. Using typography to enhance the user experience is a tool that will be incorporated into mobile enterprise applications.

For More Information Check Out:

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