Web design is all about having a catchy name for your theory. Here’s some C.R.A.P. and “F” users

Mike Rundle has a great list of C.R.A.P. … or “The four golden rules of site design. Simply follow them and watch the accolades come flooding in.”

* Contrast
Elements that aren’t the same should be very different so they stand out, making them “slightly different” confuses the user into seeing a relation that doesn’t exist. Strong contrast between page elements allows the user’s eye to flow from one to another down the page instead of creating a sea of similarity that’s boring and not communicative.

* Repetition
Repeat styles down the page for a cohesive feel — if you style related elements the same way in one area, continue that trend for other areas for consistency.

* Alignment
Everything on the page needs to be visually connected to something else, nothing should be out of place or distinct from all other design elements.

* Proximity
Proximity creates related meaning: elements that are related should be grouped together, whereas separate design elements should have enough space in between to communicate they are different.

In other web design news:
Jakob Nielsen’s latest alert that everyone’s all hot about discusses an eyetracking study that says readers view websites in an “F” pattern.

So readers read content left to right horizontally?
And they scan the left column where the page begins?
And they read less as the page goes deeper?

Uh, yes.

I suppose this is kind of another of those obvious surveys that we all need to hear. And the “F” thing makes it easy to remember.

Here’s Jake’s “Implications of the ‘F’ Pattern:”

- Users won’t read your text thoroughly in a word-by-word manner. Exhaustive reading is rare, especially when prospective customers are conducting their initial research to compile a shortlist of vendors. Yes, some people will read more, but most won’t.

- The first two paragraphs must state the most important information. There’s some hope that users will actually read this material, though they’ll probably read more of the first paragraph than the second.

- Start subheads, paragraphs, and bullet points with information-carrying words that users will notice when scanning down the left side of your content in the final stem of their F-behavior. They’ll read the third word on a line much less often than the first two words.