Visual Hierarchy
Visual hierarchy is how a layout tells the eye where to look first, second, and third. Color, contrast, type weight, and spacing all carry that signal — used deliberately, they guide attention; used carelessly, they compete for it.
Color is one of the strongest levers. Start from a single brand color and build a coherent scheme — complementary for punchy contrast, triadic for balanced vibrance, analogous for calm, cohesive surfaces. Try it below, then check your pairings against WCAG contrast so the hierarchy reads for everyone.
Color palette generator
Open full tool →Color is one half of visual hierarchy — contrast and weight do the rest.
Then check any text-on-background pairing against WCAG AA/AAA — if the contrast fails, the hierarchy you built only reads for some of your users.
Contrast & WCAG checker
Open full tool →Contrast is one check. A full audit scores the whole experience for accessibility and risk — then tells you what to fix first.
Run a full accessibility audit →4 articles
Visual Hierarchy
User Interface Design: Principles & Patterns
The principles of user interface design aren't matters of taste. Each one traces back to something measurable about how people see, decide, and mis-click — including the two numbers WCAG will actually hand you.
TYPENORMLabs · 8 min · August 1, 2026
Visual Hierarchy
Nike UX Teardown: Two Storefronts Wearing One Logo
A UX teardown of Nike's public shop pages: one interface hides every price to manufacture desire, the next admits it has 16,794 products, and the seam between them is where the brand story stops working.
TYPENORMLabs · 6 min · August 15, 2026
Visual Hierarchy
Iconography in UI Design: A Practical Guide
Most icons are less legible than the teams shipping them believe. What a usable icon set requires: labels, a drawing grid, three accessibility numbers with right answers, and a way to test recognition before launch.
TYPENORMLabs · 8 min · August 4, 2026
Visual Hierarchy
Choosing Between Different Fonts: A Typography Guide
A typeface gets picked once and every screen after that inherits it. The measurable part of the choice: legibility properties, four WCAG numbers, and what the file costs on load.
TYPENORMLabs · 9 min · August 2, 2026