How do we feel about All Caps?

Mar 23, 2023

Greetings,

As an ID, I prioritize digital accessibility and therefore avoid the use of All Caps altogether. It slows the reader down by transforming the shape of the word and decreases readability for many users.

Some organizations frequently utilize All Caps to draw attention to specific terms (within a block of text). I'm not sure how to respond when my team suggests that I put this or that word in All Caps for emphasis; it is a habit I broke many years ago.

I'd like to hear your opinions on this. Am I being too rigid? Is this generally an acceptable practice within the industry?

TIA,
Val Sevilla

1 Reply

Judy Nollet
Hero

1 year ago03/23/23 at 8:55 pm (UTC)

Reasons to not use all caps for emphasis:

As you said, it decreases readability.
Some people might mistake an all-caps word as an acronym or initials. It increases their cognitive load when they have to figure out it's only for emphasis. (In other words, all caps should be reserved for acronyms and initials.)
All caps has a history of being equated with yelling.
If the text will be translated, the emphasis will be lost in languages that don't use upper- and lower-case characters.

Other ways to add visual emphasis:

bold
italics
color
size

Bottom line: I'm with you on this. You're not being rigid; you're aiming for the best overall user experience.

😊