201099-jdelin-gem08
Principles for Automatic Layout Generation
1.All layout is done on a grid system of some kind[1].
2.Layout is a means of giving a structural overview of text content, communicating ‘meta-information’ about how the page should be consumed
Reichenberger et al. (1996:5).
3.Random layout will create confusing, unacceptable, and/or unaesthetic pages[2].
4.Layout should support understanding of the rhetorical relations between text elements. Discussion point: not all layout may begin from a textual base. Should layout then be seen as supporting understanding of the
logical relations between information elements?
5.Rhetorical (or logical) structure does not fully determine layout: many possible layouts are commensurate with a single rhetorical structure.
6.A distinction needs to be made between ‘signposting’ and aesthetic issues in the use of graphical devices. While a difference in type weight may indicate differences in priority between two news stories, for example, a change in font choice across a whole newspaper is an aesthetic issue. What is interpreted is contrast within the system of possibilities set up by the design of the publication.
7.Many pages are designed to support a range of navigation strategies, but some support only one correct one. Different ‘zones’ or blocks of a page are designed to be consumed differently. Some zones or parts of zones are optional for understanding, others obligatory. This is a parameter for differentiation between genres.
8.Where optionality or strategy range is a possibility, readers must be tempted to navigate as much of the page as possible. Failure to tempt, or the supporting of only one apparent navigation strategy, in such publications, is poor layout.
9.Functional differences between design elements are best supported by visual contrast. This may be a cultural assumption that has developed over time, so we should be aware that it may also decay; it may also differ between cultures.
10.Relationship between elements is best supported by visual similarity and proximity. Also a cultural assumption.
11.Prominence of elements – through size, colour, density, and the grammar of positioning developed for the publication or genre – is interpreted as importance or necessity of reading (cultural).
12.Non-text is more attractive than text (cultural).
13.Layout is significantly constrained by the interaction between reading order (‘navigation’), rhetorically-motivated grouping of elements, and type similarity between elements (Reichenberger et al 1996:7).
14.However, layout is also constrained by placement of ‘furniture’ (obligatory elements on the page), hierarchical relationships between unrelated text segments (as in a newspaper)…
[1] Working hypothesis based on conversations with designers. Radical magazines may not?
[2] Finding from Reichenberger et al. 1996.