My wife and I are in the new, nerdy habit of going to the library much more often. We check out documentaries and books we can thumb through. This is what having rabbit ears on your TV will lead to–I highly recommend it.

I have been reading a couple books about typography, and I thought I'd highlight some of the eye-catching principles I've come across. Much of this coincides with design intuition, but it's helpful to note the associated technical terms.

Below is a diagram that shows how the eye is trained to begin at the top-left of the page (POA), then proceeds right, then down until it ends (TA). Any design that attempts to work against this flow is less effective.

I find that reading explanations of good and bad design is much less interesting and effective than just seeing examples of each, so that's what I'll give you. Pay particular attention to the placement of the headings and images as they relate to the Gutenberg Diagram.

The example below is open to much more debate. The only point I wish to communicate is that the layout shown on the left is better if the reading content is more important than the sidebar content (as is hopefully the case with this website). Many sites that have complex navigation use the layout on the right in order to give a sense of priority to the navigation that sits on the left side of the page. I think much of the web agrees that navigation that goes across the top of the page is the most intuitive to use.

The moral of the story is, don't drink Drano and keep reading gravity in mind as you layout a page.

The Gutenberg Diagram and layout ideas were acquired from Type & Layout: How Typography and Design Can Get Your Message Across– or Get in the Way by Colin Wheildon.