Visual Design Principles for Controlling the Act of Reading

Visual Design
Controlling the act of reading

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Ethos


Keep it clean.


Readable


Consistent


Easy to navigate


Persuasive
Professional


Be kind to your
readers.


SIMPLIFY.


Simplify for the sake
of good design.


Simplify for your
own sake.


“What can be done with
fewer is done in vain with
more.”


Simplify for the sake
of your audience.


Principle of
Least Effort


Ask:


What can you
take out?


What can you
mute?


How can you
preserve
functionality?


How do visual cues
direct your attention?


Too much information
HURTS.


Can you process the
information on the next slide?


Basic
Strategies


• Isolate the center of
interest
Basic
• Insure adequate contrast Strategies
between foreground and
background

• Use pointing devices to
clearly identify your
primary information

• Use informative headers
to teach the reader
needed vocabulary.

• Avoid more than 7 items
per page


Don’t make your
reader’s head explode.


Isolate the center of interest

The key to successful communication is getting
people’s attention ﬁrst. If they don’t look at what
you want them to look at, they certainly aren’t
going to read it.


Isolate the center of interest

The key to successful communication is getting
people’s attention ﬁrst. If they don’t look at what
you want them to look at, they certainly aren’t
going to read it.

Contrast in size or color can be an
important tool that declares a certain
part of the page to be important.


• A lack of contrast between the text
and the background causes great
problems with readability


• Color must be used sparingly as an
accent rather than the sole attention
getter on the page


• ALL CAPITAL LETTERS IS THE
EQUIVALENT OF SHOUTING
AND SHOULD BE AVOIDED
IN MOST CASES


?

What works?


Be consistent.

✦ Abrupt shifts in typefaces, styles, or sizes and
shapes when there is no discernible reason for
it will alienate your reader.


White space


Regularity
✦ Is the equivalent of rhythm in music
✦ People are most comfortable when they know
where the next beat is going to fall


Stylistic rhythm is an
opportunity to emphasize
key values or concerns.


But . . .


But . . .
monotony sucks


Uniformity is good


(mostly)


Subtle is best


Demonstrate some
sense of style...


especially in your
choice of type faces


Times New Roman is the default typeface
for most word processors.

It dominates writing so much that using it in
professional writing signals “rookie” or “I
don’t care about what the document looks
like.”


Is that the impression you want to convey?

Why not experiment with other typefaces?


Baskerville Regular
A traditional typeface with a degree of elegance not
found in standard Times New Roman


Baskerville is
a proportional serif font

Times New Roman is also
a proportional serif font


(My personal font is Georgia.)


Those are all
serif fonts.


What’s a serif?


More serif typefaces:

• This is Georgia.
• This is Goudy Old Style.
• This is Palatino.


Be wary of novelty typefaces.

• This is braggadocio.
• This is Brush Script MT
• This is Colonna
• This is Curlz
• This is Herculanum


What’s the big deal
about fonts?


What if you wrote
everything in Curlz?
• It would be harder to read, for one thing.
• It also tampers with your ethos.
• This is not a very professional typeface.


There are millions
of fonts to choose
from.


The Basics


Every letter is equidistant


American Typewriter is
also a serif font.

(But unlike Times or
Baskerville, it is monospace.)


Kinda boring, unless
you’re going for the
whole ﬁlm-noir
(Pulp Fiction) thing


Why use serif fonts?


The major advantage of
serif fonts are that they are
more readable when large
amounts of text are
involved (books, reports,
etc.)

Sans-serif
(without serifs)


Sans-serif fonts are
sometimes more
readable for titles
and headings


The major problem with
sans-serif fonts is that
they require a great deal
of “white space” around
them to be readable


Do not use sans-serif for
your body text unless it
is very short.


Be prepared to change
your mind about fonts
several times.


Plan ahead


Use styles


Where things are
located on the page is
important— you should
try to provide an
interesting path for the
eye to follow

Remember that reading
involves eye movement


The “rule of thirds” is
an easy way to think
about the real estate
of the page

Paying attention to
each quadrant to
make sure that there is
something worth
looking at is a start


The three most important
zones on the page are 1 2
numbered on the right

We look in these areas,
pretty much in this order, 3
to ﬁgure out where to
look next.


UNLESS . . .


There’s something
better to look at


Pictures, lines, and
other graphic elements
can provide more
control over eye-path


Layout Made Easy


Pay attention to
where your eye goes


It would be possible to
duplicate this
sophisticated layout
using nothing more than
text boxes and styles.

Simple mechanisms
often work best.


Visual Design Principles for Controlling the Act of Reading

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