Branding is one of the most controversial issues online. A strong brand identity includes a distinctive logo, color scheme, typography, and visual elements that are consistent across all platforms and communications. 

Your Brand Colors

1. Insufficient color contrast: The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) require websites to have enough color contrast between text and the background. If your website does not have enough color contrast, it can be hard for people with low vision or who are color blind to read your website. This means that your website is not following the rules set by the ADA and WCAG.
2. Over reliance on color to convey information: You should not only use color to show what is important on your website. For example, you cannot just rely on the colors of your brand for links, buttons and error messages. People who have trouble seeing certain colors won’t be able to understand or use your website. If this happens, it can mean that you are not following the rules set by the ADA and WCAG.
3. Poor color choices for interactive elements: Your brand’s colors might not make it easy to see important parts of your website like buttons, links and forms. People with poor eyesight may have trouble using your website. ADA and WCAG guidelines say it is important for these parts to be clear, so people can use them easily. If the colors make this difficult, then your website does not meet the standards.

It is really important to use different colors on websites. This helps everyone, no matter what their vision is like, to see the content. There are rules called the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) that tell us how much contrast we should use between colors when making a website or app.

There are several tools available online to help designers check if they are meeting the required standards including Contrast Checker, Color Contrast Analyzer Tool, and Tanaguru Contrast Finder.

Your Font Choices

In the United States, it is thought that between 15-20% of people have trouble reading. This would mean that almost 50 to 66 million people in the US alone have a reading disorder, like dyslexia. These are only guesses and could change depending on how you measure them.

Having the right font can help people with dyslexia read, write, and understand better.

There are several reasons to support the use of certain fonts for readers with dyslexia:

1. Enhanced letter differentiation: Fonts made for people with dyslexia are different. They make it easier to see the letters. These fonts have heavier bottoms, different shapes, and space between the letters. Help people with dyslexia read better by reducing confusion and letter swapping.
2. Improved readability: For people with dyslexia, special fonts can help them read better. Arial, Verdana, and Calibri are examples of Sans-serif fonts that have simpler shapes compared to other fonts. This makes it easier for dyslexic readers to understand what they are reading.
3. Improved concentration and less eye strain: People with dyslexia can have trouble reading. To help, use fonts that have spaces between letters, words, and lines. This will make it easier for them to read the text. It is also best to use fonts that have the same stroke widths and not italic or bold styles. This will make it less stressful for dyslexic readers to read.

Some fonts can help people with dyslexia read better. They make the letters easier to see. By using these special fonts, designers and writers can create content that is easier for people with dyslexia to understand.

Font Choices and Site Speed

Choosing the right font can help your website be faster. It can affect how fast it loads. The file size, how the font looks, and how many types of fonts you use all play a part in this.

1. File size: When you go to a website, your browser needs to get certain files so that the text shows up correctly. Some fonts take up lots of space and might make the page load slowly. If you use fonts that most devices already have or just pick some font weights, then it will be faster. [Recently I did an audit on a website where the (branded) font used increased the load speed 7 times.]
2. Font rendering: When using custom fonts, like Google Fonts or Adobe Fonts, it can take more time for a website to load. Depending on the font and browser, people may not read the text until they downloaded the files. This can make things slower and harder for people. To help with this, you can use preload, asynchronous loading or host fonts locally. This will make it faster and easier for people to use your website.
3. The number of font variations: Using a lot of different fonts and styles on a website can slow it down. To make the website faster, try to use fewer fonts and stick to just a few for headings, body text and other important things. This will make your design look nicer, but it will also help the website open faster! [If the load speed is too slow Google will penalize it.]

The fonts on a website can affect how fast the website loads. This is because of factors like how big the font files are, and how many versions of the font there are. Designers can make sure their websites load faster by choosing fonts carefully and making sure they run efficiently. This will help people have a better experience when they browse the website.

Check out these resources on the impact of font choices on site speed and optimizing fonts for better performance:

1. Google Developers – Web Fundamentals: Google’s Web Fundamentals has tips on fonts. It can help you make your website faster. It will also show you the best ways to make sure your fonts are working correctly. Via: Google’s Web Fundamentals Tips on Fonts
2. Mozilla Developer Network (MDN) – Font Loading: The MDN documentation talks about the best ways to load fonts and how it can help your website go faster. It talks about font rendering, different font files, and how to make sure your fonts are loading quickly. Via: Mozilla Developer Network Font Loading Best Practices.
3. CSS-Tricks – The Font Loading Checklist: CSS-Tricks is a blog about web development. It has a list to help you choose fonts that won’t slow down your website. The list also tells you how to make your site work better and faster. Via: CSS-Tricks – The Font Loading Checklist
4. Web.dev – Optimize WebFont Loading: Google made Web.dev, a website for learning about web development. This article talks about how to make websites faster by choosing the right fonts and avoiding performance problems. Via: Optimize WebFont Loading

These resources will help you understand how font choices affect page speed. They also provide tips for making your website faster.

Your Site Structure

While this isn’t exactly a brand issue, I find this often. Some people who create content online only use videos or other media instead of using a lot of texts.

Sometimes, websites have too much media content like videos, images, and audio files. This can be a problem because it means there isn’t enough written text. Adding multimedia can make the website better, but too much of it might cause issues. 

Consider:

1. SEO impact: Search engines like Google need a lot of words to understand what is on a website. If there are not enough words compared to other things like images, videos and HTML, the search engine may have trouble finding out if the website is good or not. This means that it will show up lower on searches.
2. Accessibility: Having too much media content on a website (like videos or pictures) without text can make it hard for people with disabilities to use the website. For example, people who have trouble seeing need screen readers that read text. People with hearing problems need captions or written transcripts of audio and video content. If there is not enough text on the website, it will be difficult for these users to use it and this might mean that the website does not meet guidelines like WCAG or ADA.
3. User Experience: Everyone likes different things. Some people prefer to read instead of watching videos or listening to audio clips. This is especially true when they can’t get good internet or if it’s not a good place for sound. If people who make videos only use videos and don’t put text with them, some people cannot understand their content and won’t have a good time consuming the content.

You should create content in both multimedia and text. You can add transcripts for videos and audio, use words to describe images, and make sure the important information is in text. Doing this will help more people find the website, make it easier to access, and give a better experience when using it.