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 viewer's 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 mathematical (or exact) center or just to the left.
- It takes a compelling element to pull your eyes away from this spot.
- 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.

Fonts:
- No more than two different fonts in one composition.
- Two fonts must complement each other.
- Avoid Uppercase.
- Choose the right font (fits theme and tone of design).
- Do not overuse fancy or complicated fonts.
- www.typography.com/email/2010-03/index.htm

Visual Hierarchy:
- will establish focal points
- establish an order of elements (a visual structure)
- what do I want my viewer to look at first?
- what do they want to look at second? third etc.
- visual order of importance

The Grid:
- way of organizing content on a page using any combination of margins, guide lines, etc.
- all design involves problem solving on both visual and organizational levels.
- 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 disturbing 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.