Confession: I’m not a qualified designer, but I’d like to be one. The nearest I get to design is creating documents, presentations, blogs and yes, even spreadsheets.
One of the primary roles of my job is reviewing other people’s documents, presentations and spreadsheets.
I see so many things that claw at my eyes with poor design that I already have a pretty good idea of what doesn’t work.
Please no more yellow text on red backgrounds.
Please no more slides with twenty differently sized fonts in them.
Please no more documents that are endless pages of words without form or structure.
Please no more of this font switching through the document.
I could go on.
But, I’m not as clear about what makes good design.
I know some people think that it’s not important, I’m sorry, but you’re wrong, it does make a difference. David Kadavy tells us why it’s important:
David is also making a free Summer of Design available online – if you’re quick you can still enroll. I’ve enrolled, because I’d like to learn a bit more about how-to rather than how-not-to.
Graham Chastney 