emphasessome

Emphasessome is a neologism used in information design to describe the practice of selectively applying emphasis to a subset of content within a text or interface. The idea is to guide reader attention and convey structural relationships by highlighting only the most important elements, rather than applying uniform emphasis across all content.

The term combines emphasize and some. It is not widely formalized in major design handbooks but appears in contemporary discussions of readability and UX pedagogy.

Applications and techniques: In writing and web design, emphesessome employs bold or italics, color contrast, typographic size, or layout cues to mark keywords, concepts, or transitions. It is often used for pull quotes, headings, glossary terms, and callouts, as well as to distinguish main ideas from supporting text. Consistency and clear rules are important to prevent visual clutter.

Design considerations: Accessibility matters; ensure adequate contrast, avoid relying solely on color, and preserve semantic meaning by using appropriate markup (strong, em, etc.). Overuse can reduce effectiveness and harm readability by fragmenting the text.

Relation to other concepts: It overlaps with typographic hierarchy, emphasis strategies in editorial design, and information architecture. It is a pragmatic approach that complements overall readability and semantic clarity rather than replacing them.

See also typographic hierarchy, readability, emphasis in typography, and information design.