Strategies to Establish an Effective Typography Hierarchy on Your Website

A website can meet its goals only when it carefully considers its typographic elements. Strategic use of text arrangement enables the visitor to engage with the website and its business. An Effective Typography hierarchy is the key to driving visitor’s attention to the information as per its importance. In this article, we will see how to establish an effective typography hierarchy on your website. So let’s dive right in.

What is Typography

Typography is the art of arranging written words in such a way that people are able to read or decipher it. An unorganized piece of text with no typographic principles involved will appear messy. The reader will leave such a website page that does not present information in text neatly and cleanly. Typography ensures that the font style, overall appearance of text, and structure are appealing to the reader or user.

Also, Read | Best Practices In Typography For Enhancing Brand’s Digital Identity

Typography Hierarchy

Source: Google images

While typography is about making a piece of text legible, an effective typography hierarchy assists in bringing attention to visualize details. Its main aim is to organize a piece of text to highlight the importance of information. With proper hierarchy, a visual can identify the text clearly and separate it from the rest of the text.

Importance of an Effective Typography Hierarchy

The typography hierarchy plays a key role in organizing text-based information. Web designers or web design services use the hierarchy rules to bring a viewer’s attention to the most crucial information first on a website page. This assists to determine what the visitor will read first, then second, and then in the end.

Three levels of Typography Hierarchy

There are usually three levels of typography hierarchy wherever we see it. We can notice these levels while reading a newspaper, magazine, or advertisement. Most packaging materials, product descriptions, and other promotional writing involve these levels.

The three typographic hierarchy levels are the headline, subheads, and body text. Whether we read a newspaper or a description of a product, these levels of typographic elements are present. These different levels are also important to realize your typography design ideas.

Related 4 Common Typography Rules To Follow In All Your Designs

Now let’s look at the strategies to establish an effective typography hierarchy on your website:

Avoid Using Too Many Typefaces

Never use more than two typefaces in one design. There are many typography design ideas, but avoid any idea that involves the use of too many typefaces. Services that deal in brand identity design can assist in choosing the right kind of typefaces. This is because combining too many typefaces can prove to be distracting. It also creates a cluttered effect. So use one typeface for headlines and one for the body. Now, if we mix another typeface in the middle, it will defeat the purpose of creating visual cues in the design.

Use Contrast To Draw Visitor’s Attention

The contrasting effect in website design is useful to draw visitors’ attention to the details and also makes the text readable. For instance, pairing serifs and sans-serifs in the design. Serif typefaces are elegant and complex. When we pair them with simple and clean sans-serifs, it assists in creating hierarchy effortlessly for the readers.

Related High Color Contrast To Improve The Accessibility Of Design

Consider Your Goal

When using the typefaces, keep in mind your brand personality or page design in mind. Each typeface we use should be in the proper context of the personality of your brand or web page. It should be able to convey your message. Your brand message must be the top concern, not only when creating a website. Use typeface carefully also for other designs such as a typography logo.

Plan Typeface Size Carefully

We generally tend to see a larger-sized type first. Then, our eyes see other elements on a web page. Most headlines are, therefore, in larger type sizes and at the top of the page. But we do not have to follow this rule strictly. Headlines are being placed somewhere below the top space on the web pages.

But the size of fonts is also a way to create a contrast between two different elements of typography in website design. If we use just one typeface, then the font size matters even more. Generally, the largest font size is placed at the top, subheads in smaller sizes, and the rest of the text body in the smallest size.

Consider Suitable Colors

Choose a color to drive the reader’s attention to a specific typographic element on your website page. We can also use color to de-emphasize any element. A red typeface, for instance, on a web page, will look different than the rest of the black text. But we can give a grey color to a less important type. This means that by coloring some text, we are telling the reader where to look. In this way, we can influence the reader’s perception and emotions.

Use Distinct Styles and Weights

Choose the type style after some considerations. Pick a typeface and weight strategically as they are crucial to deciding on the hierarchy as per your plans. Pick special typeface and weight for headlines and subheads. As a general rule, distinctive typefaces that are bold and decorative catch our attention.

Use Whitespace For Clutter-Free Content

White space, also known as negative space, is the vacant space between two design elements. The designers use this space to emphasize a certain element. So, avoid filling the white space. If there are too many elements in the space, it may create visual noise. For an effective typographic hierarchy, pay attention to the spacing between the letters and line both. Sufficient space between letters and lines will make the reading of text a lot easier and clutterless.

Align Different Elements Well

Another thing to remember, for an effective typographic hierarchy is aligning the elements well. For instance, putting the elements of typography in the center conveys that they are important for the reader.

Conclusion

Typography hierarchy is a tool for driving visitors’ attention to the most important information on a webpage. Considerations of elements such as contrast, spacing, coloring, sizes, etc. are crucial to achieving the perfect typography hierarchy. For effective brand identity design services and typographic assistance, contact Oodles studio.

About Author

Ashutosh Chandra

Ashutosh is a blogger and technical writer at Oodles, who covers topics ranging from Branding, UI/UX design, Graphic design to other design and technology-related matters.