Week 13 | Visual Hierarchy | Mao

Ever wanted to listen to a music play list without the hassle of downloading and restarting your computer? Or without paying those .99$ Itunes fees that will eventually sabotage your wallet ? Well my friends, Grooveshark is just the site you are looking for. Personally, I am one of those ADD music nerds that need to have a continuous source of music in order to work efficiently.

What I like most about Grooveshark (beyond it's instantaneous capabilities), is its extremely simple user interface. Upon entering the site is the notorious search engine, so big you can't miss it. Immediately I am compelled to begin my search. On the farthest left there is a navagation bar comprised of 8 categories (home, library, playlist, etc). These relatively succinct titles do not interfere with the site's usability, and in fact may be minimized if need be. One great aspect of Grooveshark is its ability to narrow your search with tabs specific to albums, songs, artists and playlist (located on the top of the search). Once you have completed your search, your most recent songs will appear at the bottom of the screen and may be played anytime during your session.

While you might not think of Grooveshark in terms of visual hierarchy, I believe this use of minimal text and info-packed containers (such as sidebars, ads, other annoying tid bits) really improves the user-experience and reduces unnecessary time searching for music. Similar to Google's fast and powerful search engine, is its simple layout stripped of all text and frivolous information (at least until you search for it, but that's a different story). Additionally the use of negative space creates a spatial relationship between visual meanwhile guides the reader from one point to another. A design that is visually appealing must also be easy on the eyes. I believe the most successful websites are those that provide dense information in a discretely brilliant manner-- one that does not fully expose itself or overwhelm the viewer in just one preview. That's not to say websites do not have full flow of content, while that is still priority, but content that is construed in a viable, ergonomic sense. After all, isn't that the purpose of great design?