The Importance of Effective Design

• When document design is poor, both organization and

society suffer.
•Design as Part of Your Writing Process
•Design isn’t something to “tack on” when you have
finished writing.
•As you plan, think about your audience. Are they skilled
readers? Are they busy?
•As you write, incorporate lists and headings. Use visuals to
convey numerical data clearly.
Guidelines for Page Design
Use White Space.

•White space – the empty space on the page –

makes material easier to read by emphasizing the
material that is separates from the rest of the text.
•To create white space; use headings, use a mix
of paragraph length, use lists, use tabs or
indents, use numbered lists when the number or
sequence of items is exact and use bullets when
the number and sequence don’t matter.
.

Use Headings

•Headings are words, short phrases , that group points and

divide your document into sections,
•They enable your reader to see at a glance how the
document is organized.
•They also break up the page, making it look less
formidable and more interesting.
•Make headings specific
•Make each heading cover all the material until the next
heading.
• Keep headings at one level parallel.
•In a letter or memo, type main headings even with the
left – hand margin in bold.
•Capitalize the first letters of the first word and of other
major words; use lowercase for all other letters.
Limit the Use of Words Set in All Capital Letters
• We recognize words by their shapes.
•In capitals, all words are rectangular; letters lose the
descenders and ascenders that make reading go 19% more
quickly.
•Use full capitals sparingly.
Use No More than Two Fonts
•Fonts are unified styles of types.
Each font comes in several sizes and usually in
several styles.
•Typewriters fonts are fixed; that is, every letter
takes the same space.
•Computers offer proportional fonts as well, where
wider letters take no more space than narrow
letters.
•Most business documents use just one font-
usually Times New Roman; you can create
emphasis and levels of headings by using different
styles
•In a complex document, use bigger type for main
headings and slightly smaller for subheadings
•Twelve point is acceptable,
especially readers older than 40.
•Eleven point Times Roman is ideal
for letters and Memos and reports.
•Use 9 or 10 point type to get the
effect of a printed book or brochure
Decide Whether to Justify Margins

•Computers often allow you to use “full justification” so

that type of both sides of the pages is evenly lined up.
•Margins justified only on the left are sometimes called
“ragged right margins”.
•Use full justification when you;
•Can use proportional fonts.
•Want a more formal look.
•Want to use few pates as possible.
•Write to skilled readers.
•Use ragged right margins when you;
•Cannot use a proportional font.
•Want an informal look.
•Use very short lengths.
•Write to poor readers
Put Important Elements in the Top
Left and Lower Right Quadrants
•Readers of English start in the upper – left hand
corner of the page and read to the right and
down.
•The eye moves in a Z pattern.
•The top left quadrant, where the eye ends, is
next most important.
•Titles should always start in the top left.
Use a Grid to Unify Graphic Elements
•For years, graphic designers have used a grid
system to design pages.
•In its simplest form, a grid imposes 2 or 3
imaginary columns on the page.
•All the graphics elements – text, indentations,
headings, visuals and so on – are lined up within
the columns.
•The resulting symmetry.
Use Highlighting, Decorative Devices, and
Color in Moderation.
•Many word processing programs have arrows,
pointing figures and a host other dingbats, that
you can insert.
•Used in moderation, highlighting and
decorative devices make pages more interesting.
•However don’t overdo them.
•Color works well to highlight points.
•Blue, green, or violet type is more legible for
younger readers, but perception of blue
diminishes for readers over 50.
•Use glossy paper to make colors more vivid.
Designing Brochures

•To design and newsletters, first think about audience and

purpose.

•An “image” brochure designed to promote awareness of

your company will have a different look than an
“information” brochure telling people how to do something
and persuading them to do it.
Use this Process to Create Effective
Brochures
•Determine your objective (s).
•Identify your target audience (s).
•Identify a central selling point: one overarching
reader benefit the audience will get.
•Choose the image you want to project (clean and
clear? Most modern and hip? Or what ?
•When text is important, draft text to see how
much room you need. Do tighten your writing but
when you really need more room, use a bigger
brochure layout or a series of brochures.
•Experiment with different sizes of paper and layout.
•Consider how reader will the brochures – must fit in a
standard rack?
•Make every choice – color, font, layout, paper – a conscious
one.
•Polish the prose and graphics.
•Use you – attitude and positive emphasis.
Follow These Design Principles:
• Use the cover effectively.
• Put your central selling point on the cover.
• Use a photo that tells a story.
• Remember that the photo for the audience.
• Use a grid to align the elements within the
panels.
• Make sure the Z pattern emphasizes important
points for each spread the readers sees.
• In a three fold brochure, the Z pattern needs to
work for the cover alone, for inside pages 1 n
2 and for inside pages 1, 3 and 4.
• Effective brochures not only repeat graphic elements
( headings, small photos) across panels to create a
unified look but also contain contrast (between text and
images, a larger font for headings and smaller one of
text).

• Use color effectively.

•Restraint usually works best for informative brochures.
•To get the effect of color with the least expense, use
black print or colored paper.
•If you use four color printing, use glossy paper
• Make the text visually appealing.
•Use no more than 2 fonts – just one may be better.
•Use proportional fonts.
•Avoid italic type and underlining, which makes text
hard to read.
•Most brochures use 8-, 9- or 10 point type.
•Use small tab indents.
•Make sure you have enough white space in your
copy.
•Use lists and headings.
•Use short paragraphs with extra space between
paragraphs
•If you use a reply coupon, ,make sure its back side doesn’t
have crucial information the reader needs to keep.

Designing Presentation Slides

•As you design slides for Power Point and other
presentation programs, keep the following guidelines in
mind:
•Use a big font; 44- or 50- for titles, 32- point for subheads
and 28- points for examples.
•Use bullet-point phrases rather than complete sentences.
•Use clear, concise language.
•Make only 3 to 5 points on each slide.
•Customize your slides with the company logo,
charts and scanned in photos.
•Use clip art only if the art is really appropriate to
your points.
•Use a consistent template or background design, for
the entire presentations.
•Choose a light background if the light will be off
during the presentation and vice versa.
•Slides would be easier to read if you use high
contrast between the words and background.