18 Common Design Mistakes to Avoid

Communication via Printed Media
10. Page Design—Design Mistakes
Hasan Hüseyin Erkaya
Eskişehir Osmangazi Üniversitesi
2019
1Source: Nayomi Chibana, "The Most Common Mistakes Made By Non-Designers," https://visme.co/blog/graphic-design-rules/#5HaJX5oqBWCdMhuP.99

2
• The visual communication is becoming an important part of our interactions.
• In marketing, education, writing or in other fields, people attract attention by
visual messages.
• When people start creating their own designs, the web becomes flooded
with poor visuals that not only irritate professional graphic designers, but also
turn off viewers who can differentiate a good design from a bad one.
• The following slides have some of the most common design mistakes
committed by non-designers and amateur visual artists.
19 of The Most Common design mistakes Made by Non-
Designers (by Nayomi Chibana)
Nayomi
Chibana

1. Using words instead of visuals
• It turns the audience off to include too much text in a piece of
communication that is supposed to be primarily visual.
• This is especially true in the case of infographic and presentation
design.
3

4
1. Using words instead of visuals

5
2. Poor readability
• Too many words in each line make it very difficult to read and find
the next line.
• Too few words would make the reader stressed and impatient.
• For easy reading, use 50 to 60 characters per line.

6
2. Poor readability
• For easy reading, use 50 to 60 characters per line.

7
3. Mismatching fonts
• Combining too many fonts gives the design a disorganized and
unprofessional look

8
3. Mismatching fonts

9
4. Bad kerning
• Improper spacing between letters--called kerning-- can ruin your
project.

10
4. Bad kerning
• Improper spacing between letters--called kerning-- can ruin your
project.

11
5. Not choosing the right colors
• Selection of the color combinations is very important for the design
project.
• A project with good communicative potential can go awry if the right
colors are not chosen.

12
5. Not choosing the right colors

13
6. Lack of negative space
• The white space (or negative space) in a visual design is as essential
as the other elements.
• Lack of white space creates stress.

6. Lack of negative space
• Consider white space like any other important element of design.
14

15
7. Placing elements arbitrarily
• Aligning elements in the design can create order and symmetry.
• A lack of alignment can lead to a product that looks messy and
disorganized.

16
7. Placing elements arbitrarily

17
8. Failing to create contrast
• Insufficient contrast makes the design difficult to read and
unattractive.

18
8. Failing to create contrast

19
9. Not scaling properly
• The elements on the page should be with the intended size.
• The visuals should not look distorted.

9. Not scaling properly
20

10. Ignoring visual hierarchy rules
• An important principle of graphic design is visual hierarchy. It
communicates to the viewer the importance of each element in
relation to the rest.
21

22
10. Ignoring visual hierarchy rules
• In the design above, the largest text is the most important message,
followed by the subtitle and then the body text.

23
11. Hard-to-read text
• The goal of good design is both to be aesthetically pleasing and to
effectively communicate a message.
• The text part of the design should be easy to read. Placement of text
as well as contrast between text and background is important

24
11. Hard-to-read text

25
12. Inappropriate font combinations
• Some fonts communicate elegance and formality, while others have
more of an approachable and lighthearted look.
• Correctly paired fonts communicate a message well.

26
12. Inappropriate font combinations

27
13. Inadequate space between lines
• Too much space between lines can cause the text to appear
disjointed, while too little space can make the blocks appear too
tight and crowded.

28
13. Inadequate space between lines

29
14. Using raster images
• Raster (bitmap) graphics become blurry when enlarged.

30
14. Using raster images
• Vector images are redrawn with formulas when scaled, so they
appear crisp after scaling.
• Starting with large images and reducing them may improve their
resolution.

31
15. Striving for complete symmetry
• The use of absolute symmetry can make a design appear boring,
while trying something not so symmetrical can produce a more eye-
catching design.

32
15. Striving for complete symmetry
• Trying something not so symmetrical can produce a more eye-
catching design.

16. Failing to communicate effectively
• Many times, the designer focuses on aesthetic side of a design
so much that the actual needs and content of the visual
communication is neglected.
33

16. Failing to communicate effectively
34

17. Copying others’ work
• For ideas and inspiration, we may look at others’ designs.
• It is not acceptable to copy someone else’s work and present
it as own work.
• Also, avoid cliches and overused design elements.
35

17. Copying others’ work
36

18. Forgetting about the medium
• The design may look good on computer screen; however, it
may be ruined in the gutter of a book or magazine.
• The ink may smear on some kinds of paper more than others.
This should be kept in mind.
37

18. Forgetting about the medium
• Also, if you need to print your design be sure to change
to CMYK color mode, not RGB, which is the color mode for
projects displayed on mobile devices and computer screens.
38

19. Not being consistent
• There should be consistency and some repetition in a design so
that it will appear unified..
• Some of the same visual elements (such as image filters or types
of buttons) and layouts should be used throughout the project.
39

19. Not being consistent
40

Some mistakes with typesetting
There are some details that non-designers fail to pay attention.
1) Justifying a narrow-width text that create rivers of white space:
41
When the column width is narrow,
justified text formatting may results in
really weird spacing between words to
make up for the justified text. The
excessive white space between words
can be disturbing. When the column
width is narrow, justified text formatting
may results in really weird spacing
between words to make up for the
justified text.
To avoid this problem, you align the
text to the left or use hyphenation. To
avoid this problem, you align the text
to the left or use hyphenation.
If no hyphenation dictionary exists, you
can hyphenate by hand. If no hyphen-
ation dictionary exists, you can hy-
phenate by hand. If no hyphenation
dictionary exists, you can hyphenate
by hand.

2) Not using a space after punctuation:
There should be one space after punctuation. Traditionally two spaces are
used after each sentence.
42
Improper typesetting:
There are no spaces after the
punctuation in this text.The punctuation
includes commas,periods,exclamation
points,question marks,quotation
marks,and alike.Without a space,the
computer assumes the two words as
one and produces not so looking text.
Proper typesetting:
There are spaces after the punctuation
in this text. The punctuation includes
commas, periods, exclamation points,
question marks, quotation marks, and
alike. Without a space, the computer
assumes the two word as one and
produces not so looking text.

3) Using a space after opening a quote or a paranthesis and before closing them:
There should not be any space after opening a quote or paranthesis and before
closing them.
43
This does not look good. The sign (
parantesis sign ) gets separated at the
end of the line. “ This quote has
additional spaces before and after “ but
inside of the quotation marks. “ Smart
quotes “ function gets confused.
Proper typesetting:
This does look good. The sign
(parantesis sign) does not get
separated at the end of the line. “This
quote has no additional spaces before
and after” inside of the quotation
marks. “Smart quotes” function works
properly.

4) Using “straight” quotes insted of “curly” quotes:
The opening and closing quotes are different. “Smart quotes” option in a word
processor automatically changes the straight quotes to curly quotes. However,
some design applications do not have that option.
44
"aaa"
'aaa'
Straight quotes are used for inch and foot.
Proper typesetting:
“aaa”
‘aaa’
Curly quotes look more professional.

5) Placing the punctuation after closing a quote:
Commas and periods stay inside a “quote.”
Semicolons and colons stay “outside”;
Question marks and exclamation points: “Are they a part of the quote?” If they
are not part of the quote, they stay outside.
45
… aaa”.
Proper typesetting:
…aaa.”

6) Misusing hyphen, N-dash and M-dash: - – —
• There is one character “-” on the keyboard which is called “hyphen.” This is
the narrowest “dash” character. (Example: hy-phen-ate) (Type a hyphen without
any space between words.)
• There is also a medium-length dash character called “N-dash” which has the
same width as letter N. (Example: Ankara – Istanbul, 9:00 – 12:00)
(Leave one space before and after hyphen to get N-dash automatically on
Microsoft Office.)
• Yet there is one more dash—the longest one—called M-dash.
(Type two hyphens without any space between words to get M-dash automatically
on Microsoft Office.)
46

6) Aligning text using space bar instead of tabs:
• The width of the space character changes with font size.
• Space character does not provide exact alignment.
• Changing the size disturbs the alignment if space bar is used for alignment.
• Tabs or tables should be used for proper alignment.
47

Title Name Position
Prof. H. H. Erkaya Chairman
Doç. B. Tamyürek Vice-Chair
Dr. K. Keskin Treasurer
copied and pasted in smaller size:
Title Name Position
6) Aligning text using space bar instead of tabs:
48
Proper typesetting:
Title Name Position
copied and pasted in smaller size
Title Name Position

7) Not using “leading tabs” in table of contents:
49
Proper typesetting:

50
Thanks for your attention
Hasan Hüseyin Erkaya
Eskişehir Osmangazi University
April 2019
50

18 Common Design Mistakes to Avoid

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to 18 Common Design Mistakes to Avoid

Similar to 18 Common Design Mistakes to Avoid (20)

More from HasanErkaya1

More from HasanErkaya1 (12)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

18 Common Design Mistakes to Avoid