Visual hierarchy is the arrangement of elements on a page so that the visitor perceives information in the order in which they understand it and are meant to act on it. It is built through size, contrast, colour, placement, white space and grouping of related elements. The most common mistake on company websites is treating everything as equal – five equally prominent buttons, three different calls to action within one section, and text with no visual anchor points. The result is that the visitor does not know what to do and leaves. A workable principle is one main action per screen, with other options pushed down to a weaker visual level. It can be verified with a simple test: at a glance, it must be clear within a few seconds what the page's main goal is.
See also: Above the Fold, Microcopy, Friction in the conversion process.
