Type is not a toy

Type is the normative element of a design. The eye is a perception machine and as such goes thorugh our heirarchy of need every time we look at something.

The rules of Visual Heirarchy apply very much to type.

The more variety of fonts, type sizes and color a design uses the more energy the eye uses in orientation and threat detection, and the less it has available for comprehension and digestion.

Using type size and fonts to communicate structure, purpose, etc. is a flawed strategy, even though it is a common one. I've come to believe that 90% of the type on any layout should be either in a headline style or in a body style. In large texts, a third style for a subhead may be appropriate, but beyond that, you are playing a losing game.* There are very few designs that merit more variety than that.

Take the Circuit City web page I showed earlier:

Certainly it gets your attention, but so does a kick in the groin. It is, overall, not a bad design -- it is actually pretty professional and thoughtful. But is it useful? How easy is it to pick over all the attention getters to find something -- presuming you are looking for something? (aren't we all?)

Here is the same ad redesigned for minimum threat projetion and maximum digestion of content:

A few things to note:

It is not trendy.

The circuit city layout (the original one) slavishly and professionally follows all the latest trends in web design, and it fits in well with a lot of other hard to read and cluttered web pages. This one is something of a "throwback" in that nearly every word on it is the same size and typeface. Outside of the banners, I hagve used a bold Verdana 12 for everything except the section headers, which I intentionally "Fade back" in a grey all caps unbolded Verdana.

The bold Verdana text easy to read.

All the fonts are the same size, the links are clearly identified in blue (and only one linking convention - blue text- is used in the whole page.

There is only one true button on the whole page

The find button, attached to the search form.

I did "give" somewhat to the corporate color of Circuit City but I confine it to the header branding.

I am not a fan of bold red color in anything other than stop signs, Ferarris and prostitutes. I wouldn't want to live in a world without any of these, but I don't actively seek them out either.

All the neavigation has been confined to a single region

the left navigation.

Items in a vertical list are easier to scan

compared to items in a horizontal list.

The buttons, framing and banding of the outlet clearance content has been removed

They are superfluous. The reduction of the outlet cluster to a contiguous (implied) table makes it easier to scan.

EVERYTHING on the original page is on the revised page

Promise.

* HTML inserts one more acceptable style -- the link.