Comic Sans Strikes Again!

This story about typography may be a little late, but I can’t resist sharing it. The WRD major in me was screaming on Thursday.

I’m an idiot and locked myself out of the house (again) on Wednesday. Well, my roommate did not come that night, so I stayed at my boyfriend’s place and vowed to get into the apartment on Thursday. My roommate has class on Thursdays until 6:15. I was done with class at 12:50. I was not getting into the apartment anytime soon.

Instead of sitting around campus all day, I pretended to be a UIC Biology student for the day and crashed my roommate’s classes.

So we go to her Homeostasis class. They go over their test (with much groaning and maybe a hint of whimpering) before they start their new material. After that, the professor starts talking about photosynthesis and pulls up a powerpoint.

Lo and behold: the whole thing is in COMIC SANS.

I was laughing (quietly), and my roommate was looking at me with concern. I pointed out the error of her professor’s ways, but she still didn’t really get it. I could not believe that something as serious as learning a process of converting energy was being presented in the same way as a daycare flyer. There was also about five different forms of emphasis per page. My roommate told me she wasn’t even sure what to write down from the slides. I didn’t blame her.

How information is presented plays a huge role on its accessibility. It should fit its context. A college level lecture on photosynthesis should not be presented in the same way as if it were being shown to a preschool class.

The WRD student in my died a little sitting through the class. And of course, I snapchatted it all.