Wednesday 28 September 2011

RESEARCH ON INFORMATION HIERACHY

I now would like to know how experienced people present information in very effective ways. Then I found some examples just for me to visualize what is a good information hierarchy and what is bad. Soure : http://flywebmaster.com/webdesign/tips/hierarchy.php

    Bad Hierarchy Design

    Examples for bad information hierarchy (blurry but it doesn't matter)
  1. There is no apparent area of focus in the design. The entire page looks more or less the same and it is very difficult to find specific information without reading the entire page. As you can see, there is no variety in weight and point size of the type making it impossible to tell apart headlines from body text. Overall, this design is very poor. It basically dumps a load of... information on the viewer. 


    Good Hierarchy Design

    The text has now been segmented into horizontal pieces separated by white space. Headlines conveniently explain what each of these parts is dealing with. The type is no longer the same on the entire page. Body text looks different compared to the abstract, which is italicized. The headlines have weight and a very heavy title tells us what this page is about at first glance. 

    Whitespace and font size alterations are the primary tools used for developing a clear hierarchy on your page. Playing with a variety of typefaces, colors and font properties (like the italicization of the abstract) can also help but it must be used cautiously. Having too many elements on one page can overload and ruin your hierarchy.

    Example for good information hierarchy