Why typography drives readability in Figma - Formula Trace Breakdown

Concept Flow

[Select text sample] → [Apply font size] → [Apply line height] → [Apply font weight] → [Calculate readability score] → [Aggregate scores]

This flow shows how different typography settings are applied to text samples and how their readability scores are calculated and averaged.

Formula

AVERAGE(E2:E4)

This formula calculates the average readability score from the scores in cells E2, E3, and E4.

Step-by-Step Trace

Step	Operation	Expression	Result	Explanation
1	Sum readability scores	75 + 90 + 60	225	Add readability scores from E2, E3, and E4.
2	Divide sum by count	225 / 3	75	Divide total by number of scores to get average.

The final average readability score is 75, representing the overall readability based on typography settings.

Variable Tracker

Variable	Value Before	Value After	Description
Sum	N/A	225	Sum of readability scores from E2, E3, and E4.
Count	N/A	3	Number of readability scores considered.
Average	N/A	75	Calculated average readability score.

Key Moments

Why do we sum the readability scores first?

Why divide by 3 in the formula?

What does the average readability score tell us?

Sheet Trace Quiz - 3 Questions

Which cells are used to calculate the average readability?

A E2, E3, E4

B A2, B3, C4

C B2, C3, D4

D A1, B1, C1

Key Result

Typography affects readability by changing font size, line height, and weight, which influence how easily text can be read. Calculating average readability scores helps quantify this effect.

Transcript

We start with text samples that have different typography settings. Each sample has a readability score based on font size, line height, and weight. We sum these scores and then divide by the number of samples to find the average readability. This average helps us understand how typography choices impact overall readability.