Designing and Its Importance

A design for a document, website or even blog is all created to guide readers through the text by directing attention to individual topics (Reep D, 2006).

I have chosen my classmates Aaron Tan's presentation slides to critique. Page balance is the weight of colour, text and design all in balance with each other. In this case, the presentation slide provided by my classmate lacks of Page balance whereby the colour contrast of black overwhelms other colours. "Formal balance on a page would be the same as two evenly filled scales hanging at the same level" (Reep D, 2006). With that being said, it proves my statement that the colour of black in this presentation slide seems to overwhelm neutral and positive colours. As Diana Reep (2006) also writes that dark colours weigh more than light colours and there should be an equal amount of both present in a document to have page balance. Here is an example taken from his slides.

(Source: Aaron Tan Meng Joon's powerpoint slides)

However, the sequencing in his slides are rather commendable as he is able to arrange his design in the proper manner. Readers tend to read or scan from left to right or up to down (Reep D, 2006) and readers also consider the weight of a subject to be on the top. This type of design leads them to the correct reading path. It also give a certain attraction to readers as readers are able to scan through and read through easily without the hassle of searching for the right content.

(Source: Aaron Tan Meng Joon's powerpoint slides)

Another good point in the slides provided by my classmate is that it is consistent. Consistency refers to providing or presenting similar features in a similar style (Reep D, 2006). In this case, the slides are of very consistent as he uses the same size of headings as well as it is of the same style. Indentations means to keep items like paragraphs quotations and lists in a uniform pace (Reep D, 2006). Here he has kept the indentations in uniform order as well. All these helps readers to differentiate the importance of an issue with those not as important. It also gives a relief to readers that finding such information is so easy. The bullet points in the presentation slide help readers to initiate and know that this is a sub explanation of the main topic and the main topic usually is the header.

(Source: Aaron Tan Meng Joon's powerpoint slides)

In conclusion, it is of utmost importance that we consider the use of the ways I have just stated as it creates a much more easier way of reading as well as it creates a more interesting document to read.

Reference

Reep D, 2006, Document Design, Pearson/Longman, New York.