Visual Organization

Not directing the audience through a design is misdirecting them. 


Eye Movement:

• the typical eye moves left to right and top to bottom.
• Controlling eye movement within a composition is a matter of directing the natural scanning tendency of the viewers eye
• the eye tends to gravitate towards areas of complexity first. In pictures of people, the eye is always attracted to the face and particularly the eye.
• Light areas of a composition will attract the eye, especially when adjacent to a dark area.
• Diagonal lines or edges will guide eye movement.

Optical Center:The spot where the human eye tends to enter the page. Optical center is slightly above mathmatical center and just to the left.

It takes a compelling element to pull your eyes away from optical center.

Z Pattern: Our visual pattern makes a sweep of the page, generally in the shape of a "Z".


Effective page design maps a viewer's route through the information. The designer's objective is to lead the viewer's eye to the important elements or information.


Font Guidelines:

1. Use no more then two fonts within a page. And make sure those two fonts compliment each other.
2. Avoid using only uppercase unless necessary. 
3. Choose the right font.
4. Do not overuse fancy and complicated fonts.

The Grid:

• A way of organizing content on a page, using any combination of margins, guidelines, rows and columns.
• Instituted by modernism
• Can assist the audience by breaking info into manageable chunks and establishing relationships between text and images.
• A grid consists of a distinct set of alignment-based relationships that act as guides for distributing elements across a format.
• Every design is different; therefore every design will require a different grid structure... One that addresses the particular elements within the design.
• A grid is used to help clarify the message being communicated and to unify the elements.