There’s an exciting development in Australia in the world of fonts.  Researchers claim to have developed a new font which could have implications for all sorts of people – a font which helps the reader remember information.  The font is called Sans Forgetica and has been created by a team in Melbourne University’s behavioural business and design lab.  They have used both design and psychological theories to create a font which will actually help most people retain the information in it.

The project involved more than 400 student who took part in a study to check the results.  It found that they remembered 57% of text written in the new font compared to 50% in plan arial.

The research found that the unusual font chosen which has a seven degree slant to the left and multiple gaps in each letter.  The group theorized that by leaving the font slightly incomplete the mind would complete them which worked as a memory aide.   the aim was to create something called desirable difficulty to underpin the fonts design.

The concept is an established one in that a slight obstruction which makes the mind work a little helps to make the words more memorable.   The designers have stressed though it’s not suitable for very long amounts of text, a complete book would probably give the reader a headache.  It might be suitable for students cramming, people learning foreign languages or perhaps elderly who are having memory problems.

Many people have started to examine if it has potential for web design and online marketing.   It would perhaps be most suited to combinations of short text posts and images.  Some marketers have started to experiment with it in sales posts on platforms like Instagram or other social media sites.

If you want to try out the Sans Forgetica it’s available free of charge from the developer’s web site – http://sansforgetica.rmit/