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Visual design rules you can safely follow every time

anthonyhobday.com · 1,857 words · saved by 12 readers

Here are some visual design rules you can learn once and use many times in your career. They’re safe. Pure black looks unnatural on a screen, and pure white is too bright. Use close-to-black and close-to-white instead. Any other references to “black” and “white” in these rules assume you’re following this rule. A neutral is generally a black, white, or grey. If you use colour in your interface, add a little bit of that colour to your neutrals. This will make the colour palette feel more coherent. If you use the HSB colour system (and you should) less than 5 Saturation should do it. Important elements means buttons, content, or anything else that the user needs to notice. A higher contrast means that the element will grab attention, which is useful for important elements. Elements that the user does not need to notice (e.g. structural elements, drop-shadows) can use as little contrast as possible. You should be deliberate about absolutely everything in your design. This means whitespace

Visual design rules you can safely follow every time Visual design rules you can safely follow every time You do not have to follow these rules every time. If you have a good reason to break any of them, do. But they are safe to follow every time. Use near-black and near-white instead of pure black and white Pure black often has uncomfortably high contrast with other colours, and pure white is too bright. Use close-to-black and close-to-white instead. Any other references to “black” and “white” in these rules assume you’re following this rule. Saturate your neutrals A neutral is generally a bl

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