Simple is beautiful.

Part 6 of our 10-part series, 10 Things Every Developer Should Know About Design

Today’s question: Is bigger better? Well, the answer is: it depends.

No one likes that answer, but the point is this: your site or application needs to have a visual hierarchy. The most important parts of your site need to be the most prominent. Steve Krug talks about this at length in his book Don’t Make Me Think — you must buy this book!

This, of course, assumes that you know which should be most prominent. That’s why small focused web apps are sometimes easier to use than large scale corporate projects which often experience death by committee.

How do you make something more prominent? There are many ways, but four in particular I want to highlight: size, placement, color and contrast.

Size: This is where bigger is better. If you want to call attention to something, you can use size. Don’t make important text microscopic.

Placement: Consider where your users will be looking. Important information goes here. Also, don’t be afraid of conventions! People typically look at the top left of your page. Generally, login information or search fields go top right.

Color: Vibrant colors tend to attract the eye. Used well this can come in handy; abused and you’ll run your users limited supply of patience dry.

Contrast: See Episode 20.

Not only does your site need visual hierarchy; it also needs visual organization. Like items should be placed together. People shouldn’t have to wonder what is what on your site. Headers, proportionate sizing and structured layouts help accomplish this.

Well-defined sections mean well-organized thoughts. Busy can be deadly. You must learn what can be moved to sub-pages. Come up with creative ways to clean up your pages while still making information readily available: use javascript to create dropdows and expanding text.

In short, don’t make your user do your thinking for you.