Lessons from Hangeul – Fonts Knowledge - Google Fonts

Throughout his lifetime (1397–1450), King Sejong the Great of Korea was both passionate and vocal about his conviction that every person, regardless of their position in society, should have the opportunity to become literate. Because he understood the usability limitations of existing alphabets, he saw an opportunity to completely re-imagine how a writing system could work. Specifically, in designing Hangeul, he broke from thousands of years of tradition by purposefully creating an alphabet that was easy to learn, easy to read, and easy to write—and he defied the strict societal norms of his day by using his creation to help common citizens become literate. The story of King Sejong and the creation of the Korean alphabet surely offers some lessons for today’s design challenges, whether our intention is to make a website more readable or to transform the lives of those around us. The first lesson for human-centered design is to be principled and predictable. What is clear from an exami

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• Grace Zhang