Look at a web page. Look at its layout, how its elements are organized and the way they somehow relate to each other. That is the visual hierarchy, an especially important section to achieve successful digital products.
To achieve this, there are different factors involved such as color, contrast, position and orientation. All of them play a role in the work of creating a system that can generate a positive user experience.
Here are some of our recommendations to achieve this:
Colors go far beyond aesthetics
The importance of colors within web design is something that is beyond doubt, mainly because they often play a key role in the way users perceive the elements within a digital product.
Think about traffic signs and how they are raised in striking shades such as red or yellow: people are visually more attracted to color, so using them to highlight some detail or important information is a very good idea to avoid going unnoticed.
A perfect example of this is the 'Continue' or 'Subscribe' button in newsletters or Landing Pages. Due to their tonalities they are easily perceived by users, making them much more persuasive and achieving their goal: to generate attention.
This does not mean that your design should become a carnival. It is important that you use colors with moderation and purpose, remember that when everything is important, nothing is important.
Give space to space
There is a false belief that leaving white space is always a bad thing. Nothing could be further from the truth: when a digital product doesn't take this into account, it risks posing too much information, something that will probably make the user not know where to start and prefer to leave.
The white space is very useful to separate the information into different sections, creating focal points and preventing the visitor from being saturated with content, something that is a determining factor when it comes to building loyalty.
Use sizes to your advantage
It may be obvious, but the largest design element will always be more eye-catching than smaller ones. This is the most effective way to create hierarchy between sections.
The website designer must take a tour guide-like role in leading the user to what they want or need, something they can do by highlighting those elements that are most important and reducing the size of those that are not so important.
It's something you have to be careful with but it can be a big help.
It's all about alignment
In addition to facilitating the reading of the content in an app or web page, the layout also contributes to hierarchy depending on the place where the elements are placed.
A very common practice is to place the most important ones in the middle and leave the secondary ones on the sides. That way, users focus their attention on the points that, according to you, are the most relevant to them.
Make sure you structure your content
Written content and images are not the only things that change depending on what you need to highlight. Other actions such as grouping or separating elements also serve to help the user identify sections of a digital product so they can plan their next step.
Using visual hierarchy, there are many ways to get great results. When you are working on your next project, take into account these recommendations, with them you will create a digital product that is useful and lasting.
