MIT Is Studying What the Best Font For In-Car Apps Is

If the text isn't easy to read at a glance, it shouldn't be in a car.

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Complex Original

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Cell phones are getting more and more integrated with cars, and this means that lots of phone apps are getting car versions. Yes, we can finally just use Google Maps in the car, rather than whatever semi-functional system the car's manufacturer installed. Of course, designing an app for in-car use is very different. It needs to be easy to comprehend and operate at a glance, because the driver should be devoting the vast majority of his attention to controlling the 3,000 lb box he is currently operating at 65 mph. 

That's why MIT and Monotype are running a series of experiments to figure out how to create the perfect font for speed reading. They're showing test participants brief images of either a word or a collection of letters that looks like it could be a word, and asking them to say whether or not it was a real word. 

The results have shown that black and white color schemes are by far the best, and that black text on a white background is 38.6% easier to read, which isn't really surprising. In addition the humanist Frutiger font was found to be 8.8% easier to read than the grotesque Eurostile font. More research is planned, but these findings ALONE may end up saving lives.

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[via Bold Ride

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