Hello this is Brian Lewis and I’m talking to you outside the offices of TinyFrog Technologies on a beautiful summer day. Today we’re going to be talking about design attributes that impact visual perception.
How objects are designed and displayed on web pages really do impact how we perceive, organize, and interpret, and understand them.
6 Key Visual Design Attributes
As designers we control those factors by understanding six key visual design attributes. Let’s go through those six. The first one is the size of the element. Clearly the larger the element is on a page, the more visual attraction it will have. Second is color. Our eyes are attracted to brighter colors.
The next one is contrast. Again our eyes are drawn to areas of greater contrast. The fourth one is the position of that object or element on a page. The closer it is to the starting point, the visual starting point of where our eyes are on that page, the more visual prominence we have.
Next is going to be the shape of that object. Picture a page with text and squares and all of a sudden there’s a triangle. The uniqueness of that shape will draw our eyes to it. And then finally the last element is movement. Any kind of movement on a screen is going to immediately draw our attention as we evaluate what that movement is and that could be either an animation or video.
I also don’t want us to forget about negative space or the white space right. Negative space is the area between the objects on the page and it may seem insignificant, but actually it plays a very very important role and it greatly impacts the overall aesthetics. In fact it’s the white space that enables the objects on the page to be seen.
How UX Designers Use Visual Elements
I mean think about the last time you were on a website and there was a visual clutter of elements. It was really difficult for your eyes to make out the different elements and really understand and interpret what those were. Your eyes only darted all over trying to create some organization to that.
And that’s why simple sites through the use of visual elements that are used strategically versus just strictly for decoration are easier for your visitors and tend to be more effective. So think like a seasoned UX designer, the use of visual design elements should be evocative, they should be creative.
You should definitely improve the aesthetics, you want them to be consistent with your brand and importantly you want them to enhance usability of the site. Remember design is just not what it looks like, it feels like, design is how it works.
