Universal Principles of Design, Updated and Expanded Third Edition

091 Highlighting

A technique for focusing attention on an area of text or image.

Highlighting is an effective technique for bringing attention to elements of a design. If applied correctly, the viewer can quickly get to the most important information. If applied improperly, however, highlighting can be ineffective and actually reduce performance. For example, highlighting more than 10% of the visible design dilutes the benefit. Use a small number of highlighting techniques applied consistently throughout the design.1

Common highlighting techniques include:

• Bold, italics, and underlining — An effective highlighting technique for titles, labels, captions, and short word sequences when the elements need to be subtly differentiated. Bolding is ...