Learn visual hierarchy step by step: how the eye reads a page, six tools to direct it, and three tests for your own marketing
Most marketing that feels wrong has one problem. Everything is speaking at the same volume.
Picture a flyer for a workshop. It has a logo, a photograph, a headline, five bullet points, a date, a venue, and a price. All of it is roughly the same size. You glance at it for half a second, feel faintly tired, and look away.
Nothing on that flyer is bad. The problem is that nothing has been put in order. Fixing that is called hierarchy, and it is the first principle I teach. It improves almost everything it touches: flyers, websites, emails, proposals, even a single slide.
This is a longer post, so take it a section at a time and try the exercises on your own material. I would like to hear what you find.
That is what I teach, so let me explain why I think it matters.
Subscribe here to receive the latest blog updates & course offers.
By Hellen Grundy.
What hierarchy is:
Hierarchy is the order in which a reader notices things: first, second, third. You decide that order on purpose, then use design to make it visible.
It is not decoration. It is a service to the reader. A clear hierarchy lets someone understand a page in seconds, without effort. An unclear one makes them work, and most people will not.
How a reader moves through a page:
Readers do not start at the top left and read to the bottom right. They scan. They land on whatever pulls hardest, follow a rough path, and decide whether to stay.
Think of it in three parts:
- The entry point: the first thing the eye lands on.
- The path: the order that follows.
- The exit: where the reader ends up, ideally at the action you want.
Eye-tracking studies of text-heavy web pages found that readers often scan in an F-shaped pattern: across the top, then down the left edge in shorter sweeps. On sparse layouts, people often follow a Z, from top left to top right, then diagonally down. Treat these as tendencies, not laws. They remind you that the top and left edges carry weight, and that readers give you very little time.
Six tools for directing the eye
Each of these says, “look here first.”
1. Size. Larger elements are seen first. It is the most obvious tool and the most overused. Size only works when the difference is clear. Headings at 30 and 32 pixels look, to the eye, like the same size.
2. Weight. A bolder line is seen before a lighter one at the same size. Weight is how I separate a subheading from a paragraph without making the subheading huge.
3. Contrast. The strongest contrast wins: dark on light, saturated beside neutral, sharp beside soft. One vivid element in a quiet layout is seen before anything else. A caution: pale grey text on a pale background is easy to miss and hard to read, so keep small text dark enough to read comfortably.
4. Space. Room around an element gives it importance. A single line surrounded by white space is noticed before the same line in a crowded paragraph. Space also groups: items that sit close together read as a set, and items that sit apart read as separate.
5. Position. In left-to-right languages, the top and the left come first, and the centre of a composition has a pull of its own. Where you place something tells the reader how much it matters.
6. Type style. A change of form separates levels without needing size. I use one light display face for a single headline and a clear grotesque for everything else. The contrast does the sorting.
Most people reach for size and stop. Clearer results come from combining two or three tools, used lightly.
Make the steps visible
Here is a habit that changes how you design. If the steps between your sizes are too small, the levels blur together. So choose a ratio and stick to it.
I use a ratio of roughly one third: each level is about a third larger than the one below. On my website, body text is 17 pixels, then headings step up to 22, 30, 40, and 54. Every step is visible at a glance, and the order explains itself.
You do not need my numbers. You need a rule. Pick a ratio, apply it, and make no exceptions.
Grouping: the quiet half of hierarchy
Hierarchy is not only about what is biggest. It is also about what belongs together.
Readers group by closeness. The space between a heading and its paragraph should be smaller than the space between that paragraph and the next heading. When it is the other way round, the heading seems to belong to the wrong text, and the page feels subtly wrong even if nobody can say why.
Alignment does the same job. Elements that share an edge look related. Elements that almost line up look like a mistake.
A worked Example:
Here is an invented workshop flyer, as it often arrives. The logo, title, date, venue, price, and a block of description all sit at similar sizes, centred, in the same weight. Nothing leads.
Now apply the steps:
- The reader’s first question is “what is this?” So the title is the entry point.
- The second question is “when and where?” So the date and venue come next.
- The price and booking come third.
- The description is support, so it goes quieter.
- The logo is identification, not message, so it goes small.
The title is now largest, in one strong colour. The date and venue sit a clear step down, in medium weight. The price and booking link sit below with space above them. The description is in regular weight at reading size, in a narrower column. The logo sits small in a corner.
Same content. The page now tells you what to read, and in what order.
Three tests you can run in a minute
The squint test. Squint until the page blurs. Whatever you can still see is your real first element. If it is not the one you chose, change the page.
The greyscale test. Remove the colour, on screen or on a printout. Hierarchy built only on colour will collapse. Hierarchy built on size, weight, and contrast will hold.
The five-second test. Show the page to someone for five seconds, then take it away. Ask what it was about and what they would do next. Their answer is the truth of your hierarchy.
Mistakes I see most often
Small, pale text. It reads as unimportant, whether or not it is.
Everything bold. Emphasis only works against a quiet background.
Two heroes. When two elements are equally strong, the eye cannot choose and the page feels restless.
Too many levels. Three or four are plenty. Beyond that, readers cannot hold the order in mind.
Decoration outranking the message. A large graphic above a small headline says the graphic matters more.
Colour doing all the work. It fails in greyscale, and for readers who cannot tell certain colours apart.
Hierarchy across formats
A proposal: lead with the outcome for the client, then the detail, then the terms.
A web page: one clear headline, one primary button, and a visible step down to everything else.
An email: one message and one action. The subject line and first sentence carry the hierarchy, because many people read nothing else.
A social post: the first line and the image decide whether anyone reads on.
Try this
Choose one piece of your own marketing: a homepage, a flyer, an email.
- Write down the one thing you want seen first.
- Run the squint test and note what you see instead.
- Change two things only, using the tools above.
- Run the test again.
What I do, and what this blog is for?
I am a graphic designer and fine art printmaker based in Stavanger, Norway. I make limited-edition prints from exact geometry, I design for businesses, and I teach design theory to people who want to make clear, considered marketing for themselves.
My work, in every form, rests on the idea in this post: that a few principles, understood well, change what you see and what you can make.
This blog is where I share those principles, one at a time, with exercises you can try on your own material. You will find posts on hierarchy, type, colour, composition, and contrast, and I will keep adding more. You do not need a design background. You need curiosity and a willingness to look twice.
Let’s talk about it
I would like this blog to be a conversation. To begin:
- What is one image you saw today that held your attention? What do you think pulled you in?
- Is there a piece of design, at work or at home, that you know is not working but cannot say why?
- What would you like to be able to see, judge, or make better?
Leave a comment, or send me a before and after. I read every one. [SIGN-UP LINK]
If you would like to learn these principles in person, my course [COURSE TITLE] begins on [DATE], [ONLINE or IN PERSON].