Research Blog Entry Chapter 18 The Bedford Researcher

Understanding Design Principles

How can I use design effectively?

Understand design principles. 

Balance is the vertical and horizontal alignment of elements on my pages. Symmetrical designs create a sense of rest and stability and tend to lead the readers eye to focus on a particular part of the document.

Emphasis is the placement and formatting of elements, such as headings and subheadings, so they catch my redears attention. I can emphasize by using color or font that distinguishes some words and sentences from others.

Placement is the location of elements on my pages. Placing elements next to or near each other suggests they are related.

Repetition is the use of elements, such as headers and footers, navigation menus, and page numbers, across the pages in my document. 

Consistency is the extent to which I format and place text and illustrations in the same way throughout my document. Treating each design element consistently will help my readers recognize different roles played by the elements in my paper to help them find the information they seek.

Design for a purpose. A well-designed document presents my information, ideas, and arguments in a manner that helps me accomplish my purpose. 

Design for my readers. A well-designed document helps readers understand the organization of the document, locate information and ideas, and recognize the function of parts of the document.

Design to address genre conventions. Genres are characterized not only by distinctive writing styles, types of evidence, and organizing patterns, but also by distinctive types of design.

What design elements can I use?

Use fonts, line spacing, and alignment. 

Use page layout elements. Placement of text, illustrations, and other objects on a page or screen.

Use color, shading, borders, and rules. These increase overall attractiveness of my document, call attention to important information, help readers understand the organization of my document, help readers recognize the functions of specific types of text, and signal transitions between sections.

Use illustrations. Photographs, charts and graphs, tables, and other digital illustrations.