The font that changed everything.

Design · 5 min read

I was choosing fonts for an NDIS life management app. The kind of decision most designers make in twenty minutes. Scroll through Google Fonts, find something clean, move on. But this app's users include people who read at a primary school level, people with dyslexia, and people who struggle to distinguish between similar-looking characters. The font wasn't a design preference. It was load-bearing infrastructure.

We chose Lexend. And the reason we chose it changed how I think about typography in every project since.

Why most fonts fail people who struggle to read

Most popular fonts are designed for aesthetics and general readability. They look clean on a marketing website. They work fine in a blog post. But they share a problem: ambiguous characters. In many sans-serif fonts, the number 1 looks like a lowercase l. The capital I looks like both of them. The number 0 looks like the letter O. For a confident reader, context fills the gap. For someone who already struggles with text, those ambiguities compound into confusion.

Lexend was designed specifically to address this. It was created by Dr. Bonnie Shaver-Troup, an educational therapist, after researching how font properties affect reading fluency. The font uses wider letter spacing, distinct character shapes, and deliberate design choices to reduce visual crowding — a phenomenon where letters placed too close together become harder to distinguish, especially for readers with dyslexia.

The numbers are where it really matters for an app like this. In Lexend, the number 4 has a clear angular shape. The number 1 has a base so it doesn't look like a letter. The number 7 has a crossbar. These aren't stylistic choices. They're clarity choices for people who need to read medication times, appointment dates, and phone numbers accurately.

The research behind readable fonts

Research published in the PLOS ONE journal found that font properties like letter spacing and character distinctiveness directly impact reading speed and comprehension, particularly for readers with dyslexia. A study from the British Dyslexia Association recommends sans-serif fonts with clear distinctions between similar characters as a minimum standard for accessible content.

In Australia, approximately 10% of the population has dyslexia according to the Australian Dyslexia Association. In the NDIS population specifically, the overlap between intellectual disability, learning difficulty, and reading challenges is even higher. Choosing a font optimised for readability isn't a niche concern. It's designing for a meaningful chunk of your user base.

How to think about fonts in your app

You don't have to use Lexend. But you should think about fonts the way you think about button sizes and colour contrast. As a functional decision, not a cosmetic one. Ask yourself: can my users tell the number 1 from a lowercase l? Can they distinguish 0 from O? Are the letters spaced well enough that they don't blur together on a small screen?

If your app handles anything with numbers — times, dates, dosages, prices, phone numbers — the clarity of those characters matters more than whether the font matches your brand guidelines. You can find a font that does both. But if you have to choose, choose readability. Every time.

The font conversation usually happens once, early in the project, and then never again. Make sure that conversation includes the question: "can the people using this actually read it?" Not "does it look good." Can they read it.

Sources
Lexend - Font designed by Dr. Bonnie Shaver-Troup to improve reading fluency.
Dyslexia Friendly Style Guide (British Dyslexia Association) - Recommends sans-serif fonts with distinct character shapes.
Australian Dyslexia Association - Approximately 10% of Australians have dyslexia.

Related blog posts:

Designing for the person who can't read your app →

Colour isn't decoration →

Case study: NDIS life management app →