Visual Organization

One must learn to direct the audience through a design; not directing the audience through a design is misdirecting them!
Eye movement:

• Typical eye moves left to right and top to bottom.
• Controlling eye movement within a composition is a matter of directing the natural scanning tendency of the viewer's eye.
• Eye tends to gravitate towards area of complexity first. In pictures of people, the eye is always attracted to the face and particularly the eye.
• Light areas of a composition will attract the eye, especially when adjacent to a dark area
• Optical center: The spot where the human eye tends to enter the page. Optical center is slightly above mathematical (or exact) center and just to the left.
• It takes a compelling element to pull your eyes away from this spot.
• Z pattern: Our visual pattern makes a sweep of the page, generally, in the shape of a "Z".
• Effective page design maps a viewer's route through the information. The designer's objective is to lead the viewer's eye to the important elements or information.

Fonts:

• No more than two fonts in one composition.
• Fonts should complement each other in the composition.
• Avoid uppercase (all caps)
• Choose the right font (should fit theme and mode of design)
• Do not overuse fancy or complicated fonts.
• Website: www.typography.com/email/2010-03/index.htm

Visual hierarchy will establish focal points based on their importance to the message that's being communicated. Crucial part of design process is to establish an order of elements, a visual structure, to help the viewer absorb the information provided by a design. 

To establish visual hierachy, ask:

• What do I want my reviewer to look at first, second, etc.?

The Grid: 

Way of organizing content on a page, using any combination of margins, guide lines, rows, and columns. It is instituted by modernism. Can assist the audience by breaking info into manageable chunks and establishing relationships between text and images. Grid consists of distinct set of alignment-based relationships that act as guides for distributing elements across a format. Every design is different; therefore, every design will require a a different grid structure... one that address the particular elements within the design. Grid is used to help clarify the message being communicated and to unify the elements.