Visual Design Principles in Practice

Unity is a design principle that brings a sense of harmony and cohesion. Designers achieve it by arranging similar content nearby and applying visual consistency to elements that serve one purpose.

For example, product cards usually have the same priority and should demonstrate repeating styles, like colors, shapes, and sizes, to maintain visual consistency.

By unifying topic-related content and using consistent styles, you reduce cognitive overload and help users complete their tasks faster.

Proximity, which basically means "closeness," has all related and similar elements close to each other. Grouping related content also means adding space from unrelated stuff. Designers should use varying amounts of white space to either unite or separate items to help viewers understand the relationships between groups.^[1]

This principle supports visual hierarchy and balance, and it often goes hand in hand with repetition.

According to the alignment principle, related elements should be arranged along a common axis. Applying it minimizes chaos and helps users scan content more efficiently.

Cohesive alignment is crucial for text blocks. Left alignment is the most convenient for users' eyes as it follows a natural flow and doesn't create extra cognitive load.

In the design world, balance is achieved by combining elements, such as images, shapes, fonts, and colors, in just the right way. Symmetric layouts distribute items with equal weight on both sides of an imaginary central axis. They make pages look arranged and help users navigate products more efficiently.

Asymmetric layouts are a better fit for advertising materials (banners, emails, brochures, etc.) or landing pages to bring a feeling of surprise and catch users' attention.

Contrast is what makes the difference between two or more elements. Designers use color, alignment, size, fonts, spacing, and other tools to achieve this. Contrast helps users instantly understand what's important and where to look first.

One of the most effective ways to create contrast is through size. Enlarging the most important elements, like headings, containers, or critical information, immediately draws the eye and establishes a clear hierarchy. When everything is the same size, nothing stands out. When size varies intentionally, users know what to focus on.

Grouping also plays a major role in contrast. By placing related content close together and separating unrelated content with space, you create visual boundaries that help users process information faster. Grouping reduces cognitive load and makes the interface feel organized rather than cluttered.

Emphasis is used to draw users' eyes to something specific. It can be an image, button, piece of content, or anything else on a page. You can achieve emphasis by using visual tools like color, shape, size, texture, or patterns.

Surprisingly, designers can emphasize elements by breaking other design principles. For example, by making the element "rebel" and going against overall alignment, you immediately draw users' eyes to this area.

The principle of repetition reinforces consistency and helps organize content. Designers use repetitions in lines, shapes, forms, color, or even design elements.

For instance, we apply the same styling to an image grid or list of contacts to help users scan and underline the same priority of elements.

Movement describes the journey the human eye takes as it travels over a design. Visual prominence of elements allows designers to establish a hierarchy on a page and create a pathway through the composition. We use shapes, colors, alignment, and fonts to guide users to the right places.

Start with establishing a focal point — an element that naturally attracts the eye. It could be a prominent headline, an attractive hero image, and a large appealing CTA — elements that help users complete their goal on a page. Less important content should be less noticeable — smaller sizes and softer colors are advised here.

Negative space, often referred to as white space, refers to the unoccupied areas in a design that surround and separate different elements. This space isn't necessarily white; it can be any color, texture, or pattern. By creating a sense of visual comfort and order, negative space makes designs look organized and appealing. It provides essential breathing room for various components, enhancing the overall user experience. Here's how to use negative space effectively:

• Balance the elements: Use negative space to balance visual elements, ensuring that the layout doesn't feel overcrowded or too sparse.
• Highlight key features: Surround important elements with negative space to make them stand out and draw users' attention.
• Improve readability: Utilize space between lines, paragraphs, and other text elements to increase legibility.
• Create grouping: Use negative space to group related elements and separate them from unrelated ones, creating a logical flow.

Hierarchy guides users throughout designs, leading the eye through each area in priority order. It visually ranks elements through scale, color, spacing, and placement. The most important elements are the most prominent on a page.

For example, an article's headline uses a larger font and heavier weight to catch users' attention first, followed by a more subtle short introduction and body text.

Proportion indicates the relationship between various elements' sizes. The larger the element, the more important it must be. Good proportion adds harmony, symmetry, or balance to design.

Consider the following best practices for effectively applying proportion in the design of interfaces:

• Use a grid system: By using a grid, you can ensure that your elements are proportionally spaced and aligned, which creates a more cohesive layout.
• Use a consistent scale: This means that related elements should be sized relative to each other, creating a sense of visual unity. For example, when establishing a typography hierarchy, you can make the headings 1.5 to 2 times larger than the body text.

When the difference between elements is too large, like in the wrong example, the composition lacks harmony. In turn, when elements look almost equal, the design feels boring and monotonous.

The Gestalt principle of continuation states that our eyes naturally tend to follow elements aligned along a straight or curve line and perceive them as related. This principle becomes valuable when designers need to guide users' eyes in a certain direction.

For example, on mobile devices, the space is often limited, and designers use carousels by placing elements within one category horizontally. Continuation implies a direction to follow and helps users understand that more options are to the right.

Principles like similarity, proximity, and closure assist continuation in emphasizing that items are related and that users should expect more items if they scroll to the left.^[2]

Gestalt figure-ground principle states that our brains naturally distinguish between foreground and background objects in an image. The relationship becomes ambiguous when both the foreground and background contain two distinct images. This effect is widely used by logo and graphic designers.

UI and UX designers also utilize this principle to draw users' attention to specific areas on a screen. For example, when a modal appears on a screen, the background darkens or gets blurry, so users' eyes stick to the message inside a modal.^[3]