Rule of Priority

Default

State the intended attention order for the current task, then use contrast, size, grouping, position, and restraint to support it. The most visually prominent content should not routinely distract from the decision or action that matters most in that state.

Why

Visual hierarchy is practitioner guidance on directing attention. This positive hierarchy rule complements DR-008; removing decoration does not by itself establish useful emphasis.

Application

An exception-review screen can lead with affected shipments and their required response while keeping summary totals available but subordinate. The same dataset may need a different hierarchy in a planning or reporting task. Teaching comparisons: Lead with the distinction the reader must recognize and the shared facts needed to judge it. Keep fixture navigation and verification notes subordinate. Inspect the example without its explanatory paragraphs: those paragraphs must not compensate for an unclear value, state, or action in the interface itself. Keep both alternatives comparably polished so unrelated styling does not reveal the intended answer. These are Viewrule authoring conventions, not experimentally established thresholds. Executable emphasis contracts: Declare which subject is primary for the task, then specify the observable relationships that support that decision: type scale, contrast, grouping, placement, and any accent treatment. A correct DOM order alone does not establish visual priority. Conversely, a controlled priority counterexample may swap a coordinated color-and-type role; it need not freeze typography or restrict the mutation to order. Preserve facts, readable supporting evidence, action behavior, and consistent status meanings. An attention accent must not invent a warning or success. Author scoped checks before repairing the UI and exercise them against the rejected baseline. Assert measured paint, text, geometry, and behavior rather than classes, expected-pass annotations, or the mere presence of a rule. Preserve a representative rejected fixture so returning to the old design makes the check fail. Exact colors and sizes remain project choices: a native style check verifies those choices, not a universal salience score. Human review still judges task suitability. See the [red-to-green priority example](../examples/priority-design.md).

Exception

Navigation, orientation, or a safety-critical alert may appropriately outrank the page's ordinary primary task. There is no universal KPI count, occupancy score, or rule requiring exactly one primary button on every page.

Review

Compare an explicit task and attention order with the rendered result. Project-specific token checks may detect known deviations; no generic hierarchy score establishes that the emphasis is appropriate. For declared equal-priority peers, DR-020 adds opt-in area and font-size variation checks. These proxies do not determine the task's priority or measure perceived salience.

Enforcement

review is the strongest mechanism Viewrule expects for the complete rule. Partial checks can still provide supporting evidence without proving the whole requirement.

Detection and enforcement details →