Tuesday, 5 November 2013

six important factors in good document design



So, there are six important factors in improve document design. The principles of design are very important to apply it into a document regardless of topics or audience; the six factors are balance, consistency, proportion, sequence, white space and typography.


Firstly, 'balance' is the most vital factor influence in good document design, balance refers to image weight on a whole page document especially the long document. The tactic of the balance is to have

  • Big weight instead of small
  • Dark weight instead of light
  • Color weight instead of colorless
  • Special shapes instead of common shapes like rectangular or triangle


Secondly, 'consistency' defined a style of similarity. The elements that require in a good document is to have
  • Lines - keep lines in a neat and consistent way throughout a page of document
  • Typefaces - Use the same sizes and same type fonts for both headings and contents. 
  • Indents - Keep the indent consistency for every paragraphs, quotes and table of contents. 

Subsequently, 'proportion' means the size and how we put words and images throughout a page, a good proportions may help readers to read words while reading texts, the way is to
  • Placing the consistent amount of space for heading
  • Every design should be in appropriate size and image to guild readers read through the texts

Next, 'sequence' is the arrangement of design for the sake of readers can read easily and smoothly in a document. Readers normally start reading at the upper left corner and stop reading at the bottom right corner. In the reading process, good document design put help readers spot the important points easily.  


The last two factor is 'white space', there are few elements of white space which affecting good document design, they are heading areas, column as well as web pages.
  • Heading areas - white space offers the background, readers need a lot of white space between texts of the heading to identified the heading compared to other texts in the content. 
  • Margins - margins offers a boundary for the texts and images to keep a document tidy.
  • Columns - Between two columns of texts, white space should be reserve in an appropriate amount. Too wide or too narrow space will caused imbalance in the balance and proportion of the page.


Lastly, 'Typography' refers to the font type, it may increase the design of a page.Basically, we are using serif or san serif to maintain the readability. In addition, we may use 'script' font as a gallant font for the purpose of invitation card. A beautiful 'script' font may attract the interest of the readers to the function.




Therefore, a lot of documents like business letters and common letters need these skills to attract attentions from readers. Extra design features such as in the aid of graphic, written hints, white space and typography elements may improve a document design. Design characteristics may improve good document design in a few ways:


  • Design attract attention from readers to specific topics and make the readers remember the main ideas or emphasis. 
  • Design may enhance the reading interest from readers because the continuous typing front may increase the numbness on readers, eye-catching headings and excellent format may make the readers concentrate on the information they read. 
  • Design also generate a document which show images that readers eager to view, for example, a law firm may want to display a solid and serious image with its documents, on the contrary, a video advertising company may select a stylish and dramatic image. The similarity is both images may increase the design features in a document. 


References list:

Reep, C 2006, Technical writing, document design, chap 6, 6th edition,Pearson, New York, pp.133-172.
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