The foundation of visual hierarchy

Originally published at web.archive.org on August 06, 2010

Having a beautiful background, header, footer and a huge happy illustrated fairy on crack in the sidebar of your website isn't going to keep people browsing. We don't browse the web for beauty, we browse it for content. Anything that takes away from that content and/or the main goals of your site is just art. Art belongs in The Guggenheim.

Not many people understand the importance of visual hierarchy. Hell, I didn't even know this subject had a name until a few hours ago. I just knew it was a problem (that we have). So, I did a little research, found a few links, drank some coffee, ate some donuts, drove to work and here I am; kindly posting this here for your enjoyment.

• Visual Hierarchy in Web Design
• Common Mistakes in Web Design
• Thinking w/ Type: Hierarchy
• Typography Tuesday: Hierarchy
• Understanding Visual Organization (written in 2003 but tastes better than a cinnabon)

Enjoy.