#VALUE AND HARMONY IN ART HOW TO#

Understand users’ priorities – You want to guide users with a sense of ranked information – so, it’s self-defeating to emphasize everything on a screen. Here are some key considerations for optimizing your visual hierarchy for users: Things to Watch regarding Visual Hierarchy Our ‘About’ page exemplifies good visual hierarchy, including whitespace use. Tertiary – The body, smaller but still highly readable.ĭesign guidelines suggest a ratio of 3:1 for headers to body text size. Secondary – Use (e.g.) sub-headers to help users scan and navigate through content.

The first two words of a header should let users understand the gist of the section below it. Primary – Use a header to attract users’ attention with the page/screen’s core information, like a newspaper headline. Typography and style – Elaborate fonts are more appropriate in some industries, but ornate text and special effects (e.g., embossed, washed-out text) might distract users, and even slight distractions reduce usability. Mobile UX design specifics – Users on smaller screens must be able to notice elements right away and navigate that much more easily. Typography – Use the best font, color and contrast to present three levels of text for desktop-accessed screens, two-skipping the middle one-for mobile: Whitespace – The key to crisp, clean minimalist designs use it to calm users’ eyes and direct them to important foreground elements. are vital aids for users.Ĭenter stage – Use this UI design pattern to show users important things right up-front. Use them to help users group visual elements, notice what’s important on each page and build trust with your brand.Ĭonsistency –Familiar icons, menu hierarchy, colors, etc. The Gestalt principles – These cater to the human eye. Then, you can choose and scale elements to make the most important information prominent-and unmissable-for users as they go from task to task.

#VALUE AND HARMONY IN ART HOW TO#

Users prefer recognition over recall – hence why it’s essential they can scan instead of having to work at reading and remembering things.Ĭonsidering these, you can help envision how to show users the most important things as they try to achieve goals in their individual contexts. Reinforce these natural patterns and lead users along a cleverly constructed path to a desired goal orīreak these patterns to highlight a focal point for users. So, you can design a hierarchy either to: Left-to-right-reading Western users use an F- and a Z-pattern. Users’ eyes follow predictable reading paths, which are culturally influenced. When encountering an interface, users react extremely fast (in milliseconds), developing gut feelings about whether to stay or leave. You’ll need user research to learn about your users, but here are some general facts: How to Craft a Strong Visual HierarchyĪ strong visual hierarchy leads users to a page/screen’s functionality and gives them the right visual cues. Copyright terms and license: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0įont size and style is one way to establish hierarchy. So, for a website, app or related product to succeed, it’s crucial to structure its pages or screens to minimize users’ uncertainty, show maximum empathy with them and give them something pleasant to view.Īuthor/Copyright holder: Teo Yu Siang and Interaction Design Foundation. In user interface (UI) design, an effective visual hierarchy helps inform, impress and persuade users, who have expectations – especially about an interface’s appearance. Texture and Style – Richer textures stand out over flat ones. Whitespace – More space around elements draws the eye towards them. Proximity – Closely placed elements seem related. Repetition – Repeating styles can suggest content is related. Size – Users notice larger elements more easily.Ĭolor – Bright colors typically attract more attention than muted ones.Ĭontrast – Dramatically contrasted colors are more eye-catching.Īlignment – Out-of-alignment elements stand out over aligned ones. Hierarchy is a visual design principle which designers use to show the importance of each page/screen’s contents by manipulating these characteristics:

Value and harmony in art