Design 101 – C.R.A.P. over Crap
C.R.A.P. is an acronym for 4 basic principles of design – Contrast, Repetition, Alignment & Proximity. Adhering to these guidelines on your website will ensure that you have maximum clarity and avoid the messy look. Some people will not initially notice aspects of a website that are crap instead of C.R.A.P., but you can bet they won’t comfortable looking through the site. Without proper design principles, a site will be confusing to the user and give them an uneasy feeling. Bad intuition, if you will. A user won’t stay long on a website that gives them that feeling.
I’ll explain the 4 principles here, so that you can avoid the crappy, and go for the C.R.A.P. when it comes to your website.
CONTRAST
The first design principle in the C.R.A.P. acronym is Contrast. Making sure different areas of your website stand out from each other is important for clarity. If everything blends together, users won’t know where to start and where to end. And it will be boring. Make sure you differentiate between the navigation menu, text, and various modules on your website (focus areas, etc.). Even within the navigation menu you should have contrast, so as to differentiate between categories and pages.
Here is an example of a site that looks cluttered and confusing due to the lack of contrast:
Now here’s an example of the same site with the same content, but this time employing contrast to highlight various elements. You will notice the header, navigation menu, contact information and content are all differentiated by colour or style.
TO THINK ABOUT:
Now check your website out and see if it measures up to the C.R.A.P. principle of Contrast. If not, what can you do to make it more clear? It’s not only about colour – you can use font/font size, borders or columns to make clear visual separations on your website. Sometimes getting a fresh pair of eyes to review your website can help give you a better idea of what works, and what doesn’t, for the user.
Next week I’ll go over the next principle in the C.R.A.P. acronym – Repetition. Stay tuned!
Authored By: Tara, Client Relations