In design, particularly of documents, we tend to assume that easier equals better. We want layouts and wordings to be quick to parse and easy to grasp. As the old adage goes, “Don’t make me think!”

But when it comes to learning and remembering, making things easy may not be for the best. Many teachers accept that the learning environment should make students stretch outside their comfort zones, just a little. In my paper “There’s No Shortcut,” I suggested that some element of struggle is inextricable from the building of understanding. Intellectually, no pain, no gain.

But could the same apply to typography? A group of designers from RMIT University in Australia created Sans Forgetica, a font that’s designed to be difficult to read—just the right amount of difficulty to struggle a bit and better commit the text to memory. The font uses a back-tilt, disconnected bowls, gaps and other tricks to improve recall. Read more on the feature in the latest issue of Wired.

I wonder if this concept could be extended to other aspects of a document, beyond just typeface, such as layout, material and use. What if you had to read starting from the bottom? What about using textured materials that make the letters just slightly difficult to make out? What if you had to hold the paper in front of the mirror to be able to read it? Which of these adjustments would present just the right amount of difficulty, and which would put the design over the edge?