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The
Importance of Composition as an Aesthetic Device
Much of what will be discussed in this section is concerned with
the use of certain technologies in presenting and structuring
information and how to achieve the "aesthetic" through use of
visual design and composition. Specifically I will be addressing
the limitations apparent in web-site design, but will also address
the areas where usability and human factors engineering fail to
provide appropriate compositional and visual design considerations
with regard to information design.
Whether designing pages for websites, GUI's for software applications,
or hierarchical information structures to display web-site metrics,
usability experts rarely address the "visual composition" of the
information on a page. When compositional considerations about
the organization of this information are addressed, most usability
"experts" are relying on a very cursory knowledge of the rules
that govern the page layout of traditional books. Some of these
rules include the belief that serif type is easier to read than
sans serif type, that secondary information can be placed in the
page margin, or that type aligned to the left is easier to read
than justified type. However, GUI design often differs greatly
from traditional book design, and requires many of the rules that
govern traditional page layout to be violated. Even if this were
not the case, book designers as a community are constantly evolving
and challenging the rules and assumptions of their traditional
form.
Grid
Systems | ABA Form and Variations
| The Rule of Thirds
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