What are Conventions?

A convention is a “rule, method, or practice established by usage.” *

In Information Design, conventions refer to what users expect from previous experience reading documents and/or using websites.

We encounter design conventions every day, on almost everything we read. The designers of web pages, billboards, and even food packaging take advantage of conventional placement and type hierarchy to supply information in a way users will understand.

Examples of Conventions:

Document Design Conventions:
Headings located at the top of relevant text sections in large font
Page numbers located at the bottom of each page
Image captions located beneath relevant image in small font

Web Design Conventions:
Logo located in the top left corner of the page
Search box located on the homepage
Links change color when clicked

Why are Conventions Important?

Every design is a conversation between a designer and a user.

By making use of conventions, designers take advantage of the experience users have had browsing other websites. By showing new users something they’ve already seen, designers create an immediate sense of familiarity in the user.

If a designer places headings, navigation, and search boxes where users expect to find them, the cognitive workload of the user is reduced. This allows users to concentrate on what a designer is trying to convey in a website or document, rather than how to navigate it.

Violated Conventions:

Designers should not violate convention thoughtlessly or in a way that creates more work for users. Otherwise, users can go elsewhere.

However, there are not hard and fast rules in design. Some designers make a conscious choice to break convention and it can be successfully done. The key is to be mindful of the cohesive power of conventions.

—Catherine Krecke

*www.mdictionary.com/definition/convention