Hierarchy Lesson

In this video, Ina Saltz talks about the use of Hierarchy and how it is important to the designer and reader. She explains how important positioning, size, weight, color, contrast, and orientations are. Hierarchy allows the reader to follow a design and grasp the information in an orderly manner. Title and other important information should be the first thing a reader notices. Designers make this happen by using hierarchy techniques to make these important factors pop. Techniques such as making the title a different color, changing the size or weight of the typeface, or even positioning the text in a place which seems “normal” to the reader (read top-down, left-right). One thing that really caught my eye was when Saltz explains typographic furniture. Using rules, lines, and other small graphics can help the reader differentiate important information on a page without having the design be too clustered. This gives the readers breaks and can unify a design. All in all, this video was very informative. Hierarchy is one of the most important items to a design, and it is what makes the reader follow a specific trail a designer has set for them.