Visual Functionality

Visual Density for text

Must-haves

Utilize clear, legible fonts with thick enough weights that supply enough contrast to their background images. Highly stylized fonts often distract or confuse learners. When selecting and using a font in video content, ask yourself:

Is the weight of this text thick enough to provide enough contrast from its background color?
Is the kerning (the space between individual letters) and line spacing sufficient to be able to distinguish letters from one another?
Is there another font that feels more readable?

Nice-to-haves

Do not crowd text onto the screen if not essential. If text can be broken up and presented in smaller portions, present it this way so as not to overwhelm learners with extraneous information and visual stimulation.

Ensure that images and text are largely spaced out visually to insure visibility on multiple screen sizes (ie, mobile, desktop, tablet etc)

Relevant Scenarios for this functionality

Anna

She participates in her MOOC while she commutes on the train. For this reason, she watches the course videos on her cell phone, which is quite small. When too much text is displayed on screen all at once, smaller fonts are used, and Anna has to squint in order to read it all.

Jacob

Jacob is dyslexic. He often flips his b and d letters when a font uses the same mirror images for the two symbols. He also gets disoriented when too much text is crowded on screen.