Week 5 Readings: Making the design clear and striking

Hierarchy And Contrast: The Basis of Good Design
by Margo Halverson

How to communicate our message boldly and effectively? Halverson makes us understand some useful design basics, so that we can transform our presentation from dull to dynamic. If I read this article last quarter, my powerpoint presentation should have been better!

The concept of hierarchy is very crucial. It means the process of ranking elements in order of importance. We can achieve this aim through the use of contrast. It means making bold design moves that show differences between elements. It enlivens the slide, adds visual interest and makes clear where the viewer’s eye should go first.

We can realize contrast by many methods – element grouping and spacing, type size, style and color, and so on. However, overmuch may create “noise”. Simply make the theme striking and make the elements harmonious. That’s enough.

Here are some points extracted from this article:

1. The key to clear hierarchy – Rank and simplify.
2. White space is your friend.
3. Group related elements and isolate them for emphasis.
4. First move of contrast – Size. Use no more than three type sizes per presentation.
5. Use the text style to produce some effect.
6. Color creates lively contrast.
7. Exaggerate one item, not everything! The trick is to keep it in check and be selective.
8. You must strive for consistency in order to maintain clarity, and you do this through repetition.

Blueprints for the Web: Organization for the Masses

Christina Wodtke shows us how to assure a usable web site organization by doing a simple card sort, a useful exercise to organize your contents into categories for easy browsing. She also reveals how to invite potential users of the web site to participate in the design, thus assuring the web site creator of a usable organization system.

I totally agree with the author: “If you want people to be able to find what they are looking for on your web site, you must organize the contents based on how people think about those contents. The site must reflect the reality of its visitors, or it will confuse them.”

The article gives us some good tips to learn how people think about our content: observing others, studying the enemy, and visiting our search logs. They are so clever ways!

As for “Do a card sort” – it means putting like objects together.

By “User testing”, we'll learn that people who use recipes differently also organize them differently, as do people of different generations and cultures. So, to determine who will be using our organization scheme first and do a card sort only with those folks are important. Then we need to resolve the results: look for the dominant organization scheme, adjust it for consistency, set aside the odd categories that don’t match.

Finally look over everything. “A taxonomy is simply a hierarchal organization scheme, and on the web it's very useful for browsing. Getting it right the first time means profitability. Running card sorts with your users can help you meet that goal.”