3 Pro Tips on Alignment Flashcards

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering the core alignment principles and terminology from Erik D. Kennedy's UI design guide.

Alignment

Described as the most underrated skill in UI design, it is the practice of positioning elements to prevent a design from looking sloppy or cluttered.

Weak Alignment

The type of alignment found on the right side of left-aligned text (and vice-versa) caused by variably-sized gaps at the ends of the lines.

Cleanness

A quality that different techniques of alignment "buy" for a page; the goal of a designer is to maximize this feel between elements.

Centering

A valid form of alignment often used to vertically align elements, such as a headshot with a byline.

Meta-content

A term for punctuation, viewed as smaller "markup" on the content of the text rather than the content itself, which does not fit logically or visually the same as letters.

Hanging Punctuation

A technique practiced since the dawn of the printed word where the line of alignment is drawn while ignoring preceding punctuation to increase visual cleanness.

Hanging Alignment

The use of alignment for details that do not have the same weight as text, applicable to icons, bullet points, and half-icon-half-character supporting shapes.