Typography

Within Carbon, there are two type sets available for use with productive and expressive moments. The productive type styles were developed for product design, and the expressive, more editorial type styles were developed for IBM.com website pages.

The overarching rule has been to use the productive type styles for product design and the expressive for editorial pages. For the most part, this is still a good guideline to follow. However, there are situations where we can create contrasting moments that better support the user’s intention or task.

Let’s look at the respective design rationales for each experience, and then see where it makes sense to provide a blend.

Carbon Design System started as the design system for Cloud console and provides typography that supports productive use cases.

The key drivers for the use of productive type styles are:

Given these considerations, space efficiency is key. Keeping content condensed is helpful to support focus on complex tasks.

To create productive moments, use the body styles and supporting styles with the

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To ensure consistent line heights, use the following pairings:

Productive headings are fixed.

Carbon for IBM.com is for the creators of IBM.com and it provides typography that supports expressive use cases.

The key drivers for the use of expressive type styles are:

Given these considerations, larger type sizes and a more editorial approach allows users to scan, read, and navigate multiple pages with comfort and ease.

To create expressive moments, use the body styles and supporting styles with the

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For the fixed headings, ensure consistent line heights by using the following pairings:

As well as these two fixed headings, there is a set of fluid headings that add a series of scales and fluid behavior.

The spaces we are designing for are no longer neatly divided between productive and expressive. Both product and web pages can be blended with what we call “moments” if the alternative type set better supports the function.

Users working in product pages benefit from an expressive moment for easy reading or a pause. In these cases, however the “moment” would span a full page or banner where there are no containers.

If your users are working in a product but pausing to read or scan for options, an expressive moment can facilitate easy reading and/or create a desired impact or pause. In these cases, however the “moment” would span a full page or banner where there are no containers.

If your users are on the website and reading, but then switch to a focused task within the web experience, using productive styles within that component would facilitate focus.

Here are some of the places the Dotcom team uses productive moments:

The mega menu with the more compact productive type styles allows users to see the full range of offerings.

Account creation form with expressive type on the left, and productive type for the form interactions on the right. It shows how both type styles can work side by side.

Juxtaposing productive type within an expressive page is a useful tactic for creating a setback or a hierarchy.

The productive experience is all about keeping the user focused and able to complete complex tasks, therefore the areas where expressive moments can be used are less common. However, when the user is first entering the product, or moving to another area of the product you may find opportunities.

For expressive moments, you are looking for areas where the page opens up and the content is not restricted to a container, card, or data table. Home pages and page headers or banners are two possibilites.

For more details about home pages, IBMers can reference the World overview page pattern in the IBM Cloud library.

A product home page provides an opportunity to create both visual interest, distinction, and hierarchy with a blend of expressive and productive type styles.

You can use the two type sets to provide contrast and hierarchy within two areas. For example, the filter panel using productive type becomes less prominent next to a list of results using expressive type styles. You can push the functional elements into the background, while keeping the items of user interest in the foreground.

Within each type set, there are appropriately sized type styles for each user task. Follow the use case definitions for expressive and productive moments to determine when it’s appropriate to use each type set.

When users need to focus on a task and are interacting through inputs, forms, and controls, use the productive type set.

When users are learning and exploring, and interacting through impactful imagery, layout, and long form reading, pull from the expressive type set.

People unconsciously use type size as a signal of hierarchy, and each type set has been designed with expectations about hierarchy in mind. Mixing type styles within a component could jumble the hierarchy and create confusion.

For IBMers only: If you have any questions about using either of these experiences, reach out to the teams on Slack or sign up to share your work in a review.