Sans Forgetica is the new font in town. Developed by typographic design specialists and psychologists at Melbourne’s RMIT University, the font is based on the principle of “desirable difficulty,” a concept that suggests that people tend to remember things better if their brains are challenged to prevail over obstacles. According to researchers, This promotes deeper cognitive processing.
Sans Forgetica is a backward slanted font and has breaks in the text so that the brain is challenged to connect the gaps, hence retaining more of what is read. “We believe this is the first time that specific principles of design theory have been combined with specific principles of psychology theory in order to create a font,” said Chair of the RMIT Behavioural Business Lab and behavioural economist, Dr Jo Peryman.
Dr Peryman believed Sans Forgetica is a great tool for students studying during exams. Sans Forgetica features varying degrees of ‘distinctiveness’ built in that undermine the design principles normally associated with conventional typography. “These degrees of distinctiveness cause readers to dwell longer on each word, giving the brain more time to engage in deeper cognitive processing, to enhance information retention,” RMIT wrote in the study published on the university’s website.
The font was tested in laboratory conditions as well as online in which close to 400 Australian students read fonts which different varieties of obstructions. Sans Forgetica emerged the winner in the process and helped students retain information while remaining legible.
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