Feature Hierarchy and Visual Search

http://www.designbystructure.com/getimage.aspx.ID-119699.png

At first glance, this is just an ordinary website. There's millions of these on the web, but how does this one website stand out from the rest? Its web design has successfully incorporated feature channels, which in this case deal with color, shape, size and spatial layout. Color is always the most predominant from all feature channels, it "pops-out" the most. For example, in this website the logo and the three box icons are opposites from each other in that the logo uses a lot of color and the three box icons don't; but yet, both pop-out to the viewer just as much because of the two different ways they use color. The logo is made out because of its white lettering on a colorful background. Therefore the viewer focuses more on the white lettering rather than the colorful background, but cohesively it works together as one to make the logo stand out. This is an example of color standing out in a silent almost hidden way. On the contrary, the three box icons are white, colorless, apart from the black text each one has which can pass by unnoticeable. The reason these three white box icons stand out is because the background of the website is a gradual gray scale so the whiteness of the box icons pop-out. Also, each white box icon has a colorful link on the bottom of it so the color contrast really draws attention to these boxes and especially to their links. This is an example of color standing out right off the bat. The size and shape of these boxes also make them stand out even more. Spatial layout is an interesting one when analyzing the boxes because there's some kind of depth going on between the background and the boxes, especially when the colorful link of the boxes reflects on the "floor" of the website which makes the boxes come out/jump out at you. The visual search of this website is really successful in that there's not much information to look at, just the logo and the three boxes with the links. Sometimes not having a lot of choices makes it easier for the user to navigate through the website without getting overwhelmed. I would say that overall, the visual hierarchy of this website is color and it was used successfully!