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Visual design serves a purpose greater than decoration; it is an important tool for effective communication. The organization of information on the screen can make the difference between a message users understand and one that leaves users feeling overwhelmed. Even the best interface can suffer and be underused if the visual presentation does not communicate it well. It is important to understand how we function in the real world and interpret it correctly for touch panel interfaces.

For example, we read a screen in the same way we read other forms of information, left to right and top to bottom. The eye is always attracted to colored elements before black-and-white elements, to isolated elements before elements in a group and to graphics before text. We even read text by scanning the shapes of groups of letters. Consider the following principles when you design the organization and composition of visual elements.