A
Introduction to Centre for Visibility Design
Researcher
Sofie Beier
Research unit
Centre for Visibility Design
A quick look at the dashboard of a car, a road sign at blistering speed, or the typing on a pill container in gloomy light. We are reading all the time even when we do not realize it.
At “Centre for Visibility Design” we explore how even the smallest changes in design of fonts changes what people actually see when their eyes meet a text.
Even at fleeting glances, small changes make a big difference.
There are few research centers in the world that work with reading from the perspective of designers. We are one of them. Our research therefore matters to the people who form our letters. We also explore how readers stand out amongst themselves.
Sofie Beier, Professor
Research Motivation
When I was working as a typeface designer there was a thought that kept nagging me: Were my design choices beneficial to the reader or to my own sense of aesthetics?
The research has given me the answer.
I’m still surprised by how big a change one single detail can make even when we only have a moment to read a text.
The research has given me the answer.
I’m still surprised by how big a change one single detail can make even when we only have a moment to read a text.
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External partners
DTU, Rigshospitalet Glostrup, Aarhus University Hospital, University College Absalon, EyeJustRead, Serious Games Interactive
Bibliography
Bibliography
Open Access
[1]
K. Rummens and S. Beier, ‘Adjacency beats static and dynamic color in bar chart comparison’, Iperception, vol. 17, no. 5, p. 20416695261481745, 2026, doi: 10.1177/20416695261481745.
[2]
C. M. A. Ilyas, A. Tashk, S. Beier, and P. Bækgaard, ‘Cross-Modal Analysis of Typography Effects on Visual Attention based on TVA and Task-Evoked Pupillary Responses (TEPR): ETRA’, in ETRA ’26: Proceedings of the 2026 Symposium on Eye Tracking Research and Applications, A. Chetouani and A. Vilanueva, Eds, New York: Association for Computing Machinery, May 2026, pp. 1–7. doi: 10.1145/3797246.3804835.
Not Open Access
[1]
K. Rummens and S. Beier, ‘Gaze-based word highlighting boosts reading performance: an eye tracking study in second graders’, Ergonomics, vol. 69, no. 7, pp. 1253–1265, Jun. 2025, doi: 10.1080/00140139.2025.2514600.
[2]
C. Oderkerk and S. Beier, ‘Script-style degrees: Letter recognition in regular versus special fonts’, Information Design Journal, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 25–35, May 2024.
[3]
S. Beier, ‘Aspects of inclusive text design’, in The Bloomsbury Handbook of Global Typography, P. Luna, F. Ross, A. Sherin, S. Walker, and V. Singh, Eds, 2026, pp. 321–331. [Online]. Available: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/bloomsbury-handbook-of-global-typography-9781350336384/
