Document design: the essentials

Word documents, power-points, websites and blogs, all begin with a blank page. It can be daunting at first; how are you going to design the document to look appealing, yet effectively convey your message? 

Don't worry, there is no need to fret! By following these six basic design principles, your document will soon be looking like it has been designed by the creatives at Vogue. 

1. Balance: the visual weight of something on a page
2. Proportion: size and place of text, graphics and elements on a page
3. Sequence: effective design will make use of sequence principles
   - readers start at the top left, ending at the bottom right
   - readers notice things with most visual weight first      
4. Consistency: presenting similar features in a similar style
5. White Space: areas on the page that have no text or graphics, helping readers to process the text efficiently, with ease.
6. Graphics: utilised well, aid the reader's understanding of the document or text

This is one example of the following principles being used well.

What was your eye drawn to first? The picture, then the title of the article? That's what I thought. 

The image at the top of the page uses the principle of balance, as the visual weight of the page draws our eye to the image, and then the text. Proportion between the size and placement of the graphic is 50/50 on the page, thus demonstrating the sequence principle. 

Sequence is also demonstrated through the following: 

• The picture of three men wearing gold
• The title 'the men in gold'
• Story content 

Our eye jumps from the picture, to the top left of the text, before finally reading the story about the elusive 'men in gold' and ending at the bottom right corner of the page.

The graphic alludes to the article's contents, making it is a prime example of a graphic used to aid the reader's understanding. Consistency is established through the use of a single font and a consistent layout, whilst white space has been used in the margins, providing a frame for the text to make it look clean yet interesting. 

Now, you're probably thinking "oh wow, they make sense! That document looks great!", and you're right. If you too want a document to look this damn good, just follow the principles and you'll be on your way to document design greatness. 

Reep D.C, 2006, 'Document Design', in Reep D.C's (ed.), Technical Writing, 6th edition, Pearson/Longman publishing, New York, pp. 133 - 172.