Visual Organization

Not directing the audience through a design is misdirecting them

Eye movement:

• The typical eye reads 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 center and 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 designers objective is to lead the viewer's eye to the important elements or information.

Font Guidelines 

• Use no more than two fonts within a page 
• make sure those two fonts compliment each other 
• avoid all caps unless its necessary
• choose the right font 
• do not overuse fancy and complicated fonts 
• www.typography.com/email/2010_03/index.htm 

Visual Hierarchy

• establishes focal points based on their importance to the message thats being communicated
• establish oder of elements, a visual structure, to help the viewer to absorb the information provided by a design
• ask yourself: what do i want my viewer to look at first? what do i want my viewer to look at second? what do i want my viewer to look at third? etc
• order of visual importance 

The Grid

• Away of organizing content on a page, using any combination of margins, guide lines, 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