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Age-Related Deficits and Their Effects on Reading

Older readers are more affected by suboptimal designs of typefaces, are more easily distracted by irrelevant elements in the text, are more sensitive to low contrast between foreground and background, and have greater difficulty tuning in to a specific typeface style. With growing age often comes some level of cognitive decrease, which is associated with a decline in processing speed and a general deficit in cognitive flexibility. In addition, many elderly people suffer from some form of visual impairment. In spite of the growing number of senior citizens, and in spite of the fact that many reading-related deficits can be addressed through thoughtful typography, these issues are rarely considered in design. This presentation will show new scientific findings on the legibility of typefaces for elderly readers and will suggest ways of improving visual acuity for this target group.

老化が読書に与える影響

高齢の読者ほど低品質なデザインの書体に弱く、テキスト内の不要な要素に注意を逸らされ、強い背景色とテキスト色の対比を好み、異なる書体スタイルに頭を切り替えるのに苦労する。加齢により視覚認識に関する疾患がしばしば伴い、それが文字への処理速度の低下や適応性の欠落の原因と考えられている。また高齢者の多くは何らかの視覚障害に苦しんでいる。高齢化が進んで椅子にも関わらず、また上記のような問題の多くはタイポグラフィで解決できるにも関わらず、デザイナーの間で十分に考慮されているとは言えない。このプレゼンテーションでは高齢者層の書体の視認性についての新たな科学的発見を紹介し、それに沿って適切なタイポグラフィを実現する方法を提案する。

Speaker

Sofie Beier

Associate Professor Sofie Beier teaches at the School of Design at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, where she is the head of the Centre for Visibility Design. She is the author of the books Type Tricks: Your Personal Guide to Type Design and Reading Letters: Designing for Legibility, and has published numerous academic papers on typeface legibility. Her research focuses on improving the reading experience by achieving a better understanding of how different typefaces and lettershapes can influence the way we read. ソフィー・バイヤーはデンマーク王立美術院のデザイン科助教授で、同学デザイン可視性センター長。著書に『タイプトリック:書体デザインの個人指導』と『文字を読む:視認性向上のためのデザイン』があり、また書体の視認性についての学術論文を数多く執筆。彼女の研究テーマは読書体験の向上と、書体や字形のスタイルが読む行為に与える影響について。