Designing for Different Mediums

Visual communication is about speaking to viewers through words and pictures. Separately, these elements don’t make much of a show, but when combined in just the right ways, they can persuade, influence, make people laugh or even make them cry.

“Three Decafs and a Paper, Please”

Page layout and design depends largely on the medium you are designing for. Newspapers, for example, have become almost as essential to the average adult American’s diet as a cup of coffee every morning. Through the years, they have also adapted to fit into our hectic lifestyles. Newspapers are typically several columns wide, and contain mostly text. This is because readers of newspapers want facts, and they want them fast. Rules and boxes are used to set stories apart and give pages an organized feel.

english.glendale.cc.ca.us

Magazine Street

Magazines, on the other hand, are meant to be read at a more relaxed pace. This is why they often have more pictures in their layouts and fewer columns of text. For this medium, designers often incorporate a dominant photo on a page to develop a strong focal point. Then, the rest of the layout is set around that photo. This helps a reader's eyes move throughout the entire page, keeping him interested. Designers also place captions and text on the outside of a layout. Otherwise, the flow of the layout is disrupted and it becomes weak. Another trick designers have found is to leave a little white space on a page. This often ties a layout together and prevents the viewer from being overwhelmed by a monsoon of information.

nestarchitects.com.au

A Lazy Man’s Surfboard

Surfing the Internet is becoming a world-wide pastime. But unlike newspapers and magazines, web pages have an unlimited amount of space to display information. Text is often displayed in a single column that is much wider than that of newspapers and magazines. But people read slower on the Internet than they do on paper, so paragraphs tend to be shorter. When pictures are added to a web page, thumbnails are used instead of giant photos. This is a courtesy to viewers who have slow Internet connections.

www.csee.wvu.edu

For all mediums:
• Your goal is to keep a viewer’s eyes on the page, not to lead them off. Make sure your photographs don’t let viewers stray.
• Use Serif fonts (fonts that have "feet"), like Times New Roman, so that your text is a bit more easy to read.
• Think organized. Make sure your elements connect with each other so that the flow from one element to the next seems effortless.