S60 User Experience

April 28, 2006 Does size matter? Posted by at 03:43 PM | Categories: Mobile Flash

Readability is surely a big part of usability. Usability experts normally take care that the font being used is big enough, not vice versa. Mobile devices have small displays, and even the smallest fonts used on a computer look big on them (the resolution and the type of font of course affect this) – so what is the solution: endless scrolling or a font that nobody can read? As I have been chasing up this issue I have noticed: none of the mentioned ones. Small fonts that are being used in mobile applications are usually pixel/bitmap fonts that are astonishingly readable. The trick is that these fonts are not antialiased and thus sharp even at size 5.

In Flash Lite 2.0 the font issue has been solved nicely. There is a bitmap-setting that can be applied to each font that should make the font act like a pixel font. You can also download “real” pixel fonts e.g. at Best Flash Animation Site.

The best way to find if text is readable or not, is to test the application with the people it is targeted at – they will tell you. Still, from the usability point of view, I’d say sharp and small is also sometimes beautiful :)

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Totally agree :)

There are still a few bugs and issues during flash authoring while using pixel fonts. If using the font statically not many problems there (just have to remember to place them on full pixels and use size 8) but when using it dynamically and embedding a pixel font, there is much to be improved.

There are so many great pixel fonts available!
http://miniml.com/
http://www.meantangerine.com/store/
http://www.t26.com/fonts/browsebycategory2.php?fs=16

Yes, fonts rules!

Couple of my favourite sites:

http://www.fontsforflash.com
http://www.minifonts.com/
http://www.dsg4.com/04/extra/bitmap/
http://www.thepixelplant.net/
http://www.bestflashanimationsite.com/pixel-fonts/
http://geda-online.com/grab_pixelfont.htm

Moca: Yes, I have also noticed that even though you had the bitmap setting on, the text does not necessarily look as it should (e.g. even rows do, but odds don't). Thanks for your hints!

There's a problem with pixelized (and px-size defined) fonts though, stemming from the increased resolution of newer displays. The pixel fonts used in Sonera SurfPort's small graphics look really small on my N90. We're talking a fraction of a millimeter here...

Excellent point Niko! So there is difference between how and when to use px-fonts. If one is using font for the web layout it won't reproduce properly in mobile browser and vice versa (+add flash issues). So we just need more device customized sites but how would this be possible when there are so many different devices out there? It's like having 500 different screen resolutions for the weblayout compared current reality that is more like 2 or max 3, mostly just one. That's why best (or at least most useful) mobile services are quite text oriented.

Makes quite challenging requirements for the mobile CMS...

S60 Open to new features

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