How to use design to engage readers

Good graphic design can complement great writing to engage readers and deliver more effective company communications. Indeed the two in combination can produce a result far stronger than you’d get from text alone.

Here are nine steps to help you produce designs that will draw and engage readers:

Readability is king. Page design should never get between the writer and the reader. Great design enhances ease of reading. That said, having headings and graphics at different sizes, and in a hierarchical order, indicates how you want the reader to navigate the page, where you want their eye to go to first, second, third and so on. Use of scale also creates energy. It can create drama or tranquillity and really brings a layout to life.

Clutter. Keep everything simple and clean. A cluttered layout is difficult to navigate because your eye won’t know where to look first. It doesn’t ‘invite the reader in’.

Text. Experiment with typefaces. There are thousands of beautiful and interesting typefaces which can create a mood and give life to a piece of writing. These ‘display’ fonts are great for headings and pullouts. For body copy, the typeface should be easy to read but reflect the style of the piece. For instance, a report should reflect contemporary design (and like fashion, it changes all the time) but a classic Winnie the Pooh children’s book would not look nearly as beautiful if typeset in a modern sans-serif font.

Column width. Generally, keep widths narrow. There’s a reason newspapers and most magazines do this. It’s easier to read in bite-sized chunks and if you are briefly distracted, it’s quick and easy to find where you left off.

Colour. Never be afraid to use colour. Colour is an essential element in page design. It can create mood and emotion, emphasise important elements and help break up a page to make for a more interesting read.

Beware typewriter hangovers. Avoid underlined type except in website links. Underlining was the only way to emphasise anything on a typewriter, and some people still cling to it. You have easy access to bold or italic. Bold is best used as a marker to indicate the opening of a new section, sub section, or category (as with the opening of this paragraph.) Italic is best in the middle of running text where it’s less distracting than bold. Vertical and straight quote marks are another hangover from typewriter days. Now we have curved ‘open and close’ marks that insert themselves automatically.

White space is your friend. Use it instead of rules. Let your page breathe. It helps keeps a page clean and uncluttered (there’s that magic word again). And judicious use of white space can help guide a reader around the page.

Choose the right design for the document. Design should reflect the medium and type of document you’re working on, and appeal to the people who’ll be reading it. An academic paper should look different from a magazine. In fact the type of document will affect all your design decisions – choice of typeface, colours, photography style and layout.

Remember there’s no cookie-cut solution. That’s the beauty of the creative process. Every job is different. The rules of thumb above are basic guidelines but ultimately, great work depends mostly on the talent of its creators.