[ashark]

> Why having webfonts at all? Every computer and mobile phone has tons of fonts already installed. Your fonts definitely doesn't look better. Please don't waste my bandwith with it.

Designers are really in love with using literally any font that's not a system font and will throw a fit if they can't do that. It's all because branding, or something.

As a user I hate that crap. Quit wasting my disk and bandwidth with your cutesy garbage and just use system fonts. As a developer I hate that crap, because it's one more thing to worry about.

But the designers/marketers have won this one—they're willing to fight really hard for their special snowflake fonts and have sold it to the people who make decisions as being vital for branding, which is Super Important™.

Add allowing custom, downloaded fonts to the list of things the web is worse for supporting.

[danielharrison]

The reason designers use them is because 95% of their userbase values form over function.

You're obviously in the 5% which values function over form, but surely you can understand most people want things to look pretty, plus the company wants to have a cohesive brand.

I used to be a function-over-form advocate but was converted somewhere along the line after working with some awesome designers, doing lots of a/b testing and talking with the end user.

Both form and function are equally as important as each other.

[bassman9000]

userbase values form over function

any stats? I'd say it's the opposite. It would seem to me people want things to work, first and foremost.

Both form and function are equally as important

This contradicts the previous statement, if your userbase is your first priority.

[arvinsim]

> any stats? I'd say it's the opposite. It would seem to me people want things to work, first and foremost.

It is important to test these kind of assumptions. That's the reason why A/B testing and other analytics tools are used(not to mention communicating with the end user).

[delecti]

Corroborating anecdote: somehow the Amazon Ember font is really important for branding here at Amazon. It's a very big deal when our ads don't use it.

Though to be fair, as an ad block user, I can't actually be totally sure that the font wouldn't have a positive effect on my ad engagement.