Yulu's new Typeface

Yulu's new
Typeface

I led the research for a new typeface that better reflected Yulu’s evolving brand. One that is modern, mobile-friendly, and full of motion. I evaluated and audited 40 typefaces, and then we landed on a typeface that now anchors the product’s visual language across all platforms.

What is it?

A redesign of Yulu’s onboarding experience in response to rapid growth in 2019. As more users joined and new services were added, the existing flow needed to better guide users, explain how Yulu works, and help them get started smoothly.

Roles

Product Design

Head of Design

Product Manager

Aryan Indraksh

The challenge

Typography, for a mobility brand like Yulu that interacts with users across platforms plays a crucial role in shaping perception. Redefined design language, meant needing a typeface that could unify our identity across all channels.
The challenge was to find a font that reflected Yulu’s evolving brand tone, modern, approachable and future-forward. The search involved evaluating and finding a typeface this is consistent and scalable in a growth environment.

The approach

The first step was conducting audit of all typefaces currently in use across Yulu’s ecosystem. This revealed a lack of consistency, with a total of 5 different fonts used across various channels.

The second step involved reviewing research papers to build a strong case for why typography matters. Next, I analyzed the typefaces adopted by design leaders we identified to benchmark best practices.

In parallel, I began evaluating typefaces suggested by the team, along with those that met criteria. This resulted in a detailed audit and testing phase, ultimately leading us to identify the one typeface.

The Evaluation

Audit & Research

First thing first was the audit of current typefaces currently in use across Yulu’s ecosystem. This revealed a lack of consistency, with a total of five different fonts used across various channels:

1. Circular standard - used in presentations and parts of the website
2. Avenir - used within the customer app
3. Open Sans - also found in the customer app
4. Heebo - used on sections of the website
5. Mulish - scattered usage in some web components

Secondly, I reviewing research papers to build a strong case for why typography matters:

1. How Typography Affects Conversions and UX: Tommy Walker (link)
2. Effect of Font Type on Memory for Instruction: Sally McDonnell (link)
3. An Event-Related Potential study of letter spacing during visual word
recognition: Elizabeth Sacchi a, Ryan Mirchin a, Sarah Laszlo (link)

The goal of onboarding was not only to educate users about how Yulu works but also to improve the existing experience. A detailed audit revealed several issues that were affecting usability and engagement. Key problems identified were:

1. Placement of tutorials after login resulted in users skipping them, reducing their effectiveness.
2. Usability issues like small tap areas for actions such as Resend OTP, poor spacing, and unclear error messages.
3. The referral program lacked clarity & users frequently found it difficult to apply the code.
4. Additionally, the app did not support password resets for forgotten credentials, and sign-up was limited to Indian phone numbers, excluding international users.

* Auditing existing typefaces *

* Research takeaways *

Evaluation of Typefaces

The audit of existing typefaces across Yulu’s ecosystem revealed team preference for Circular Std. However, licensing restrictions from Monotype made it unviable for long-term use. This led me to expand the search by evaluating typefaces used by leading design teams—such as Cereal by Airbnb, Netflix Sans by Netflix, etc. in order to benchmark what makes those typefaces great and what to look for in terms of quality, scalability, and brand alignment.

Evaluation method

Suits Yulu’s tone
Legible, readable, contrasting
Il1 test (capital I, lowercase L, and number 1 test)
8 and B test
Multi-language support
Contrast and weight range

The typefaces evaluated

Lexend, Atkinson Hyperlegible, Bitter, Raleway, Thempos Text, Kulturista, Chap, LL Circluar, Heebo, Open Sans, Avenir, Mulish,TT Commons, GreyCliff, Visby Round, Lufga, Jeko, Haffer, GT Haptik,Polly Rounded, Bariol, Gilroy, Pacaembu, Aeonik, Averta Std. Poppins, Satoshi, Inter, Duplet, Suisse Int'l, Gilroy, Duplet Open.