Design hierarchy — it sounds like a term for hardcore designerds, perhaps something in a big dusty book that’s part of a college degree program. And it’s true, you’ll find it in all the books.

But you’ll also find it throughout your social media feeds — you’ve likely already seen it without even realizing it.

In today’s social media world, there are tons of highly successful visual content creators that didn’t spend a single minute in a Graphics 101 class. Many of these creators are making beautiful, impactful designs that connect with people and drive business goals. These are the types of graphics that you look at with envy, they’re the ones that get feverishly shared and saved.

Their secret? Whether they learned it in a book or not, these creators understand design hierarchy.

Subconsciously each of us is affected by it every time we see something visual!

So, what is it and why is it important? Let’s break it down.

When you look at something, anything really, your brain forces you to divide it into smaller pieces.

As smart as we humans are, we can’t take in all that information simultaneously, so our brain uses cues to figure out what is most important. Hierarchy refers to arranging elements in a design in a specific way to show their importance. It’s visual organization! (And if you are like us, you loooooove organization!)

It’s up to the designer to create a hierarchy so that the viewer doesn’t have to think about where to look first. Our eyes, and our brain, need to process information in order. This is *exactly* why we recommend NOT having your entire graphic in all caps — it hurts readability and makes it harder for a viewer to scan quickly

“But all the information in my graphic is important!” say all clients.

Yes, we know!

Ideally, people would walk away with 100% retention on anything in your visual, but, unfortunately, that just isn’t the case.

Poor hierarchy leads to overwhelming the viewer, or worse, losing their attention entirely. On social, that means your ideal client scrolls on by and can’t even recall a single element from your post when you were hoping they would remember it all.

The challenge is to really identify the *most* important thing for someone to walk away with, and then to continue to rank all the elements of your design from there.

Once you’ve got your rankings, use the tools in your design toolbox to help add emphasis where you want it!

Yes, making something bold does help, but it’s not the only way. Try playing with these options:

Type size
Case
Weight
Color
Position
Alignment
Typeface
Spacing

Now that you’ve taken a new swing at your design and you feel pretty good about it, how can you tell if you’ve designed like a graphics pro?

Here’s an easy trick to make sure you’ve nailed it: Step back from your screen a few feet. What do you see first? If it’s not the most important element of your graphic, it’s time to go back to the drawing board and make a few tweaks. If it IS the most important element? Put it out into the world and watch it perform!

Got more questions about hierarchy? Drop us a question on @amr_digital and we’ll be more than happy to answer.

Design Hierarchy Explained, And Why It’s So Important

AMR DIGITAL