This document provides guidelines for effective design including: 1) Keep designs simple to reduce cognitive load on users by including only necessary elements and using consistent layouts, typography, illustrations and color palettes. 2) Use a grid layout and consistent visual elements to create a cohesive design that is easy to navigate and understand. 3) Employ typographic hierarchy, short sentences, clear illustrations and a limited color palette to make content easily digestible.

1. SketchDeck
How to design

2. These are the basic rules to
make things look good
(there is more to being a designer!)

3. A lot of design is reducing the
cognitive effort required to
digest information

4. If you’re unsure whether to
include a design element, don’t.
It’s a distraction and weakens your
message

5. Content

6. Dense content is difficult to
make pretty

7. BAD

8. Information must be digestible
• Give it hierarchy: Title, section, points
• Chunk everything into tiny pieces
• Keep sentences short and simple

9. GOOD

10. GOOD

11. Layout

12. Always use grids
Every single item’s bounding box defines invisible
guidelines.
Keep their number small (by re-using the same
guidelines between items)

13. BAD
your eye sees
these gridlines

14. GOOD

15. Re-use visual devices to
reduce cognitive effort

16. GOOD

17. Typography

18. Make it easy to read.
Don’t compromise on this for prettiness

19. Make it readable and legible

20. Rule of 5
Every change of font style (e.g. size, face, color,
underline, weight, italics) has a cognitive cost
Keep to five styles or fewer. This slide has four.
BAD

21. Rule of 5
Every change of font style (e.g. size, face, color,
underline, weight, italics) has a cognitive cost
Keep to five styles or fewer. This slide has two.
GOOD

22. BAD

23. This font is pretty but might
print/display badly

24. Typographic contrast
If you have no variation at all, it’s hard to pick out
the different elements (e.g. headers, body text)
Include some contrast

25. GOOD

26. Illustration

27. Now we’ve got some well laid
out text, let’s spice it up

28. Illustrations instantly trigger
mental associations, hence
reduce cognitive effort

29. Just adding
cliched icons
is not good
enough
BAD

30. Illustration should have purpose,
and be an integrated style
across the whole design/brand

31. BAD

32. BAD

33. GOOD

34. GOOD

35. Color

36. Fewer the better

37. Have a defined palette

38. These could
all look good
if used well

39. Many brands just have one primary
color, and a few grays/secondaries

40. Three most
important points:
Simpler usually looks better
Keep a clean grid
Be consistent

41. SketchDeck