As the title suggests, this is the seventh in a series of rules for website design, which began in June of last year with Rule 1. In that post, and in the second post in the series, I explain what I mean by a rule, so I won’t repeat the explanation here.
The rules are supposed to be in some sort of logical order, and focus on visual design for the Web—assuming that the all-important work of analysis has already been completed. So the last rules were about choosing and using colours, throughout a Web site. Time to look at individual website pages at the moment of creation. Here then is rule 7.
7. One Web page, one focus
In other words, decide what is the most important feature of the page you are working on—and make sure it looks the most important. Make it stand out. Make it the focus of attention.
There are lots of ways to do this. Variations in size work: make it the biggest element on the page. Or it can be the best-placed element, or the most strikingly coloured—or it can catch attention by being intriguing. Attention-grabbing contrast will often work: a reverse block of colour, an oversize font, a juxtaposition of colours…
On an ideal Web page, there is something a visitor can take in in the first second of the page loading. This should be the most important thing on the page. Similarly, if a visitor stays after the first second—they may not—she or he should be able to see what the page has to offer without reading any text (except maybe a header).
It follows from this that there shouldn’t be two or more elements competing for attention. There should be only one ‘top dog.’ This may mean taking risks: so take them. As design guru Jim Krause says, “You must be decisive.” As (designer) Robin Williams says, “Don’t be a wimp!”