Page Design

Less is more
Alan Clark Department of Mass Communications. School of Humanities, University of Hertfordshire.

Fundamental Design Principle 1

In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away.
Antoine de Saint Exupery, 1940. "Wind, Sand and Stars" (quoted in "Multics: The First Seven Years", F. J. Corbato, J. H. Saltzer)

Fundamental Design Principle 2

The proportions of the formal elements and their intermediate spaces are almost always related to certain numerical progressions logically followed out.
Josef Mller-Brockmann, 1968. (Mller-Brockmann, Josef (1968) The Graphic artist and his design problems. New York: Niggli Ltd.)

Simply Put

A good page layout has an orderly arrangement that is aesthetically pleasing.

First important principle...

The more you know about your audience, the better equipped you are to attract their attention and communicate your message. Knowing who the audience is will help you determine the best format in which to communicate with them.

Robin Williams PARC System

Proximity Alignment Repetition Contrast

(The Non Designers Design Book)

Contrast

Contrast: Contrast refers to any difference of size, shape, or colour used to distinguish text (or other elements, though here were focusing on text) from other pieces of text. The use of bold or italics is one common form of contrast the difference in shape makes the bolded or italicized text stand out from the surrounding text. Increasing the size of headers and titles, or using ALL CAPS or smallcaps are other ways of distinguishing text. These techniques only work if used sparingly; a document typed in all capital letters has less contrast than one typed normally, so is harder, not easier, to read.

Repetition 1

Repetition: Repetition in your text is bad; repetition of your design elements is not only good but necessary. Once youve decided on a size and typeface for second-level headers, for instance, all second-level headers should look the same. For most documents, two or maybe three fonts leaning heavily on one for all the body text, with the other two for headers and maybe sidebars are enough. The same bullets should be used on every bulleted list. Information that appears on every page should appear in the same place on every page.

Repetition 2

Design elements like horizontal rules between sections or corporate logos should appear the same whenever they are used throughout the document. Repetition of design elements pulls the document together into a cohesive whole, and also improves readability as the reader comes to expect text that looks a certain way to indicate certain qualities (e.g. the start of a new section, a major point, or a piece of code.

Alignment 1

Alignment: Alignment is crucial not just to the cohesive appearance of your document but to the creation of contrast for elements like bulleted lists or doubleindented long quotes. Your document should have a couple of vertical baselines and all text should be aligned to one of them. Unaligned text floats mysteriously, forcing the reader to figure out its relation to the rest of the document. Centered text is particularly bad (and is a novices favorite design trick).

Alignment 2

One immediate step you can take to vastly improve the appearance of your documents is to remove the centre button from your softwares toolbar (or, less drastically, just ignore it). It is rarely self-evident what centering is meant to communicate, and too much centered text creates a sloppy, undisciplined look

Proximity

Proximity: Pieces of information that are meant to complement each other should be near each other. One great offender here is business cards and ads in local newspapers, where the name, address, and phone number are all scattered around the ad or card (for example, in the corners). Your reader shouldnt have to seek out the next logical piece of information; rather, use proximity to make sure that the next piece of information a reader sees is the next piece of information they should see.

Why Do We Need Principles of Document Design?

a) To maintain legibility and clarity. b) To maintain clear communication and avoid overload. c) To direct readers to information of interest/importance within the hierarchy of information. d) To keep the reader stimulated, interested and intrigued.

Follow up
Non Designers Design Workshop resources: http://www.nondesigners.com/minicourse/index.html Some chapters from: The Non-Designers Design Book The Non-Designers InDesign Book on Studynet, under Teaching Resources/Week 1 There are also two videos for this week, and more magazine covers to analyse.