Visual Design
Visual design makes our work, aesthetic, clear, and usable. We’ll start exploring some principles of typography and layout in this class. Keep in mind that theory will only take your design work so far. You have to produce work, look at it, and try again in order to actually improve.
Learning Objectives
- analyze a design according to principles: contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity (CRAP)
- differentiate between display typefaces and text typefaces
- identify features of fonts appropriate for interfaces
- establish basic typographic hierarchy
- use spacing to make text readable
- use proximity to make relationships clear
Starter Files
- Type and Composition (Download)
Resources
- A CRAP way to improve usability by David Travis
- Explore typographic layouts at Typewolf
Further Reading
- Learning to See by Oliver Reichenstein
Tools
- Google Fonts
- SkyFonts to sync web fonts from Google Fonts
See Also
Competencies
- Visual Design Amount of Design Variations
- Visual Design Presentation Slides Design
- Visual Design Quality of Design Variations
- Visual Design Typography
- Visual Design Style Tile
- Interaction Design Responsive Layout
- Interaction Design Interface layout
Lessons
Resources
Articles
- A CRAP way to improve usability
- Learning to See
- Lessons From Swiss Style Graphic Design
- Typography for User Interfaces
- UI vs Print
