26 Apr 2012
School
Department
Course
Professor
Visual Design
•Visual design = organizing something's appearance
•Visual design applies to anything visual
-Web page design
-Displaying information (charts, graphs, reports)
-Maps, brochures, birthday cards
-Code formatting
-Etc.
•Visual design is not just about making something look pretty
•Good visual design will:
-Make web pages easier to navigate
-Make information easier to read and absorb
-Make your code easier to understand
•Excellent visual design requires some artistic ability, but a reasonably good design can be
achieved by following the four principles of visual design:
-Proximity
-Alignment
-Repetition
-Contrast
Proximity
-Things that are related should be grouped close together
-Things that are not related should be separated
•A related concept to proximity is that of whitespace
•Whitespace refers to any empty space between visual elements
-It is not necessarily white, but it will be if the background colour is white
Allignment
-Visual elements should line up in straight lines, horizontal or vertical
•Straight lines give a more organized appearance
•As a general rule, left and right alignment work best – particularly for paragraphs of text
•Center alignment is terrible for paragraphs, but can work for things other than text
Repetition
-Visual elements that have the same purpose or level of importance should look the same
•If there are too many different-looking things on a web page, it will not look like everything
belongs on the same page
-It will not look cohesive
Contrast
-Visual elements with a different purpose or level of importance should appear different
•This is the opposite of repetition
-More important elements should be more prominent – that is, larger, with stronger colours –
than less important elements