Conceptual Weighting
From Zanecorpwiki
Conceptual weighting is the idea of giving the most emphasis to the most important things on the screen. Proper weighting is essential to both user interface development and communication.
Contents |
Define Goals
The first step is to understand your goals. Put on your marketing hat and you want your brand identity in the fore. From the user/customer point of view, you want to accomplish some task or find information. If you sell ads on the site, then you want the ads to take center stage.
Generalizing this idea, most of the forces involved in this goal setting can be categorized as marketing, function, and sales. These forces are usually at least partially antagonist and the particular value and weighting given to each at any given time is a function of the purpose of the site, the business model, and as well as the immediate needs of the company.
Of course, the forces are sometimes harmonious. To the extent that sales means ads, then it is probably antagonistic to function.[notes 1] However, sales on an ecommerce site is synonymous with function.
Except in limited contexts, marketing generally has (or should have) a benign relation to both sales and function. The cost of marketing is really just the space it takes up, and a well designed header can provide context and spacing and so be useful from both a functional and sales even if dominated by a marketing message.
Weighting Techniques
Visual Hot Spots
Color
Real Estate
As a general you want the most important things on the page to get the most space relative to content. Real estate can generally be divided into our three goal categories: marketing, function, and sales. The header, for instance, is usually largely given oven to marketing and dominated by the company name and logo and white space. The #1 hot spot, however, should always be given over to function.
In some sense, real estate is the easiest to manage. First of all, there are basic rules and expectations that determine a lot of the questions. Header is at the top. Logout in the upper left hand corner. Content in the middle. Any font intended to be read must be at least 9pt and preferably 12 so raw content on display sets certain lower bounds.
Where there is flexibility is determined last, the decisions are usually made after others have already been set. Your colors and visual style determine visual impact, and hot spots are already given over to necessary function.
For these reasons, placement is usually largely determined by the time one gets to the question of sizing. Sizing then becomes a fill in the blanks operation.
Two rules:
- don't forget about white space; a decent border and spacing costs real estate but is a very effective way to both draw the eye and buffer important content from distraction
- don't over do real estate; a widget with an eye catching color in a visual hot spot is already going to get attention, don't waste too much real estate on it as well, you'll end up over-amplifying it to the point of distraction
Motion
Motion should only be used for honest to got high immediacy alerts. Otherwise it's just too distracting.
Resources
- The 960 grid system is a great way to lay out pages because it chunks the real estate conversation. I would strongly advise making use of it.
Notes
- ↑ Some argue that targeted ads are a value ad, but that's bullshit. Targeted ads sometimes add value, but not in a consistent, systemic way. I.e., when an ad brings up exactly what I want, value added. Most of the time, they don't. Even when they try. For myself, I use the Google paid placements about 10% of the time. Some people love the placements, so for them, yes, targeted ads do ad value, but my guess is that globally, more Google users more often use non-paid links than paid links. Even if Google manages (or has) really got it right, very few others have. My suspicion is that ads and function will always be more antagonistic than not.
