8 common design mistakes (and how to avoid them)
What allows to judge design as bad or good? It is true that this is a subjective taste preference of one or another person. But ultimately, a good design conveys the essence of the message, maintains interest and clearly visualizes the broadcast information. Poor design, in turn, makes the message difficult to picky, thereby complicating communication.
We give eight common mistakes in the design of a visual message and how to avoid them.
Balance is one of the fundamental principles of design that serves to distribute elements on a layout, creating a sense of order and balance. Balance is an achievement of optical and psychological balance in composition. However, balance does not always imply the use of strict symmetry. But at the same time, symmetry is not necessarily a bad form - it is a fast, banal and easy way to transfer information. Using the same asymmetry, you can cause involuntary interest and other emotions in the subject of information. As a result, there is an active attention and a focused appeal of the subject to our resource.
Space - another of the basic principles used in the design. It says about the thoughtful placement of related elements, about their visual grouping with each other - this helps us relate information and understand the logic of the relationship of elements. For this purpose, and serves as the use of white (negative) space by designers. So we allow the audience to quickly view the page without applying additional visual elements like dividers.
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A common design error is scattered content across the page, making it look cluttered and sloppy. This is not conducive to the effective communication of information to the consumer.
So, improve the white space, let's headlines, captions, paragraphs and other elements of the page "breathe." White space creates a contrast, escorts the viewer's eye in the desired direction, establishes a neat visual hierarchy.
Repetition gives a feeling of consistency and consistency, and also improves the readability of the content. If there are no repetitive visual elements in the project - for example, a color scheme, forms, fonts, images, spatial relationships - the site loses its integrity and readers will not be able to link information blocks.
But you should avoid saturating the page with repetitive elements, otherwise there is a chance to tire the audience and cause irritation.
The next common mistake is inappropriate use of aligning a large amount of text in the center. Center alignment is applicable to posters, invitations, branding, allowing you to balance small text , highlight certain aspects of the layout, and create a visual hierarchy.
If the paragraph contains more than three lines, then this technique gives the impression of carelessness and clumsiness, and the readability of the content decreases, since the jaggedness of the borders of text lines makes it difficult to move from the end of one line to the beginning of the next. Thus, users are forced to try and peer into the paragraph.
For large blocks of text, use left or right alignment. In the case of web design, the method of centering text is best left for headlines and short signatures, quotes.
Reading a large amount of text formed in a variety of long lines causes eye strain. Content is much easier to read and assimilate if it is organized with the observance of the optimal string length. The latter depends on the indents, sizes and type of the font. As a rule, it is comfortable for a person to read text that has a length of lines of 10 centimeters, which is equal to 45-70 characters, including spaces, with a font size of 11-13 pixels.
Kerning is an adjustable change in the distance between pairs of adjacent characters. The quality of the text depends on the determination of the correct distance between letters, as well as on the proportions of the characters of the selected font.
If the letters are too close to each other, it gives the impression that the inscription is stuck together. If the distance between them is too large - the inscription falls apart into separate characters. In both cases, the task of creating a neat and easily readable text is not solved. If the purpose of the text is not the effect of the incident, but comfortable reading, then you need to create a harmonic uniformity of the text with kerning so that the design looks neat and visually organized.
Contrast is an important and weighty rule in the design for maintaining the compositional balance of the layout. The user experiences an emotional impression, noticing unusual design moments, the contrast adds focus and does not allow the design to look dull and flat.
To highlight the broadcast message, you can select and vary a variety of colors, fonts, textures, sizes and shapes - the main thing is not to overdo it.
For example, the last thing I would like to see on the landing page or brochure is a random mix of fonts. This not only destroys the design of the layout and looks repulsive, but also does not allow to focus on the content. Experiments with the choice of fonts should be limited to 2-3 headsets, combined with the design of a particular project.
The same is true of the selection of colors: an excess of colors gives the impression of screaming, depressing and cheap bad taste. Limit 2-4 colors, and always consider the legibility of the text on the selected colors.
Raster images are a grid of pixels, these are typical format files: jpg / jpeg, tiff, gif, bmp, and png. They depend on the resolution, therefore, increasing the bitmap, it becomes uneven and blurred. In turn, vector objects are scalable and can be enlarged without loss of image quality, their lines will remain clear and sharp, both on the screen and in print.
Without a well-thought-out design, a superior idea loses the chance to be noticed, heard, perceived. The common errors and recommendations listed above, how to avoid them, as well as further independent googling on the eight points listed, will allow you to create professionally executed layouts on which the content will look attractive and efficiently broadcast the message to the target audience.
We give eight common mistakes in the design of a visual message and how to avoid them.
1. Perfect Symmetry
Balance is one of the fundamental principles of design that serves to distribute elements on a layout, creating a sense of order and balance. Balance is an achievement of optical and psychological balance in composition. However, balance does not always imply the use of strict symmetry. But at the same time, symmetry is not necessarily a bad form - it is a fast, banal and easy way to transfer information. Using the same asymmetry, you can cause involuntary interest and other emotions in the subject of information. As a result, there is an active attention and a focused appeal of the subject to our resource.
2. Not enough white space
Space - another of the basic principles used in the design. It says about the thoughtful placement of related elements, about their visual grouping with each other - this helps us relate information and understand the logic of the relationship of elements. For this purpose, and serves as the use of white (negative) space by designers. So we allow the audience to quickly view the page without applying additional visual elements like dividers.
')
A common design error is scattered content across the page, making it look cluttered and sloppy. This is not conducive to the effective communication of information to the consumer.
So, improve the white space, let's headlines, captions, paragraphs and other elements of the page "breathe." White space creates a contrast, escorts the viewer's eye in the desired direction, establishes a neat visual hierarchy.
3. Not enough repeatability
Repetition gives a feeling of consistency and consistency, and also improves the readability of the content. If there are no repetitive visual elements in the project - for example, a color scheme, forms, fonts, images, spatial relationships - the site loses its integrity and readers will not be able to link information blocks.
But you should avoid saturating the page with repetitive elements, otherwise there is a chance to tire the audience and cause irritation.
4. Centering text
The next common mistake is inappropriate use of aligning a large amount of text in the center. Center alignment is applicable to posters, invitations, branding, allowing you to balance small text , highlight certain aspects of the layout, and create a visual hierarchy.
If the paragraph contains more than three lines, then this technique gives the impression of carelessness and clumsiness, and the readability of the content decreases, since the jaggedness of the borders of text lines makes it difficult to move from the end of one line to the beginning of the next. Thus, users are forced to try and peer into the paragraph.
For large blocks of text, use left or right alignment. In the case of web design, the method of centering text is best left for headlines and short signatures, quotes.
5. Too much text on one line.
Reading a large amount of text formed in a variety of long lines causes eye strain. Content is much easier to read and assimilate if it is organized with the observance of the optimal string length. The latter depends on the indents, sizes and type of the font. As a rule, it is comfortable for a person to read text that has a length of lines of 10 centimeters, which is equal to 45-70 characters, including spaces, with a font size of 11-13 pixels.
6. Failed kerning
Kerning is an adjustable change in the distance between pairs of adjacent characters. The quality of the text depends on the determination of the correct distance between letters, as well as on the proportions of the characters of the selected font.
If the letters are too close to each other, it gives the impression that the inscription is stuck together. If the distance between them is too large - the inscription falls apart into separate characters. In both cases, the task of creating a neat and easily readable text is not solved. If the purpose of the text is not the effect of the incident, but comfortable reading, then you need to create a harmonic uniformity of the text with kerning so that the design looks neat and visually organized.
7. Bust with fonts and color
Contrast is an important and weighty rule in the design for maintaining the compositional balance of the layout. The user experiences an emotional impression, noticing unusual design moments, the contrast adds focus and does not allow the design to look dull and flat.
To highlight the broadcast message, you can select and vary a variety of colors, fonts, textures, sizes and shapes - the main thing is not to overdo it.
For example, the last thing I would like to see on the landing page or brochure is a random mix of fonts. This not only destroys the design of the layout and looks repulsive, but also does not allow to focus on the content. Experiments with the choice of fonts should be limited to 2-3 headsets, combined with the design of a particular project.
The same is true of the selection of colors: an excess of colors gives the impression of screaming, depressing and cheap bad taste. Limit 2-4 colors, and always consider the legibility of the text on the selected colors.
8. Using raster images
Raster images are a grid of pixels, these are typical format files: jpg / jpeg, tiff, gif, bmp, and png. They depend on the resolution, therefore, increasing the bitmap, it becomes uneven and blurred. In turn, vector objects are scalable and can be enlarged without loss of image quality, their lines will remain clear and sharp, both on the screen and in print.
Finally
Without a well-thought-out design, a superior idea loses the chance to be noticed, heard, perceived. The common errors and recommendations listed above, how to avoid them, as well as further independent googling on the eight points listed, will allow you to create professionally executed layouts on which the content will look attractive and efficiently broadcast the message to the target audience.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/260605/
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