Design of a variable font to influence somatic behaviors

Can a variable font influence my behavior through targeted use of design features?

Original title:
Gestaltung einer variablen Schrift zur beeinflussung somatischer Verhaltensweisen -
Kann eine variable Schriftart durch gezielte Nutzung von Gestaltungsmerkmalen
meine Verhaltensweisen beeinflussen?

I was inspired to write this bachelor's thesis because I have been working from home a lot due to the pandemic and have hardly moved at all.

That's why I was looking for a way to use design elements to encourage movement. In this thesis, I developed a font that subconsciously shows users of digital devices that they haven't moved enough during their working day.

This is achieved by making the glyphs change in its shape more and more over time. At its maximum formation, the font appears stiff, slumped and the legibility is limited. This font is integrated into all Internet-based applications via a browser extension. Once the step target has been reached, the user can use their programs again without any visual restrictions.




2023
BACHELOR THESIS

INTERACTIVE
TYPOGRAPHY
CONCEPT
BROWSEREXTENSION 
EXPERIMENTAL
COMMUNICATION DESIGN
WEBSITE
WEB DESIGN
PROGRAMMING




The achievment of the step target is visualized by a constantly changing variable font.
Arial Fitness variable font mockup
Browserextension Interface turned off
Browserextension Interface turned on
Arial Fitness variable font
Glyphselection normal state
Arial Fitness variable font Glyphselection slack state
Visualization of the step target next to the variable font.
Suddenly the legibility of the font decreases and the user is subconsciously forced to leave his workplace to reach his step goal in order to enhance the legibility again.
A browserextension was developed to change the users main font to the Arial Fitness font. 
The font uses the regular Arial font, but when activating the extension, it will change over time.