Research Approaches
Summarizing, three lines of approach for research have been introduced; per application, per division of different elements on a ‘page’, and per language. Two methods of research, the user trial and the survey, have been considered for conducting such research. The lines of approach and methods of research mentioned are by no means the only way to arrive at a more practical and integral approach. Neither are these lines and methods meant as replacements of typographic research as it is currently done. They have simply resulted from speculation about how typographic research can perhaps be made more accessible to typographers. It might not even be true that a more practical and integral approach would be the way to achieve greater accessibility. It does seem, however, that a growing number of applied psychologists merit such an approach, or designer-centered attitude (Stiff, 1996; Bartram, 1982; Macdonald-Ross and Waller, 1975). This is not to say that typographers can only be served by the approaches suggested here; other ways may be just as fruitful. The suggestions are examples of ways to produce useful and applicable results. Some of these recommended approaches have already been taken by researchers; since a decade, there has been a shift from the classical empirical paradigm in typographic research to looking at specific conditions. In these times of change, it seems that the future has quite some work in store for those concerned with typography. Those who will have to work with the result of these efforts, the readers, however, will not want to be aware of the fuss that is needed to give them effective hardcopy. They simply want to read.