Design for Easy Reading

You’re reading an excerpt of Great Founders Write, by Ben Putano, writer, entrepreneur, and book publisher. He’s the founder of Damn Gravity Media, a publishing house that inspires and educates tomorrow’s great founders. Purchase now for lifetime access to the book and on-demand video course.

How to Format Your Writing To Reach More People

Chris Do is an accomplished graphic designer, entrepreneur, and teacher with more than one million YouTube subscribers. One of his most popular video series is where he critiques designs sent in from fans. Some of them are pretty rough.

But no matter how bad a design is, Chris always follows the same thoughtful process:

First, he describes what he sees in the design. What’s happening on the screen or page? His goal is to get a sense of the work as a whole before critiquing the parts.

Second, he thinks about how the design makes him feel. This forces him to judge the piece emotionally before logic takes over.

Third, Chris identifies the strengths of the design. “Oh, I like this block of text,” or, “The shape of the symbol fits nicely with the typography and works on a concept level.”

Last but not least, Chris offers his suggestions for improvements. In logo design, the most common critiques are legibility, contrast, and creating a focal point.

Numerous studies have proven that good design increases user satisfaction and comprehension. Poorly designed things, from websites to office buildings, grate on us like sandpaper. They are literally exhausting to consume.

That’s why the design of your writing is just as important as the content. Good design creates clarity. Before a reader reads a single word on this page, they judge the aesthetics of the work as a whole. We all judge books by their cover. The same is true for blog posts, emails, and investor memos.

Writing is your most powerful tool, but only if people read it.

We can learn a lot about writing from the way Chris critiques design work. Let’s look at four design lessons to make your writing easier to read:

1. Give the Reader Direction

Good design gives your eyes a clear path to follow. We tend to notice bigger elements first, as well as elements in the forefront of the design. If you see eyes on a page, you’ll naturally look to where they are looking. A web designer can use these techniques to guide a visitor directly to the call-to-action.

Writing has a natural starting point: the top left. But after that is a long, meandering path that few readers are willing to take. In the world of business writing, no one reads every word. That means you need to direct your reader to the most important information.

Most readers skim writing before deciding to read it more thoroughly. Readers will jump to the biggest elements first: your headers and subheaders. These are your directional arrows. Don’t try to be clever—make your headers clear and descriptive.

Let’s take this section as an example. This chapter is titled, “Design for Easy Reading.” There’s no question what you’re going to learn here: writing lessons from the world of design.

Clever titles are more confusing than intriguing. Imagine if this chapter title was “Back to the drawing board.” You’d have no idea what the chapter was about, and you’d probably skip it.

In business writing, it’s better to be clear than clever. We’re all too busy to play guessing games and risk wasting time on something irrelevant.

Good design provides clear direction.

2. Create Focal Points

Good design also creates clear focal points. Poor design has no focus, confusing the mind about where to look first. This is exhausting to the viewer, and most will simply give up trying.

Good writing also has focal points. The most important information should be easy to identify. Readers in a hurry should be able to jump to the most important text and get the gist of what you’re saying. Poorly designed writing gives equal weight to every word. You may think every word is important, but your reader won’t. If everything on the page seems important, readers will decide that nothing is important.

When speaking, we naturally emphasize the most important points. We enunciate, talk more loudly, and even repeat ourselves. You can do the same thing when you write.

Italicize for emphasis.

Bold or highlight the most important sentences.

Repeat yourself to create a rhythm of focal points.

Put the most important information at the beginning of a paragraph, not the end, and definitely not the middle (unless you want the reader to miss it).

You may have learned in school that such blunt writing tools were cheap tricks. But you’re not just a writer; you’re an entrepreneur. Forget “elegant” writing. Your goal should be ergonomic writing: useful, functional, and efficient.

Use every trick at your disposal. EVEN ALL CAPS.

But don’t overdo it. Again, if every word seems important, nothing is.

3. Create White Space

In design, what you don’t see is just as important as what you do see.

White space is literally the space in between design elements. It’s a critical piece in good design, and one that takes time to appreciate and master. Young designers often try to fit as much as possible on the page. Experienced designers know that white space is what makes their work stand out.

This principle is just as important in your writing.

Meredith Metsker, a journalist-turned-content marketer for SaaS startups, emphasizes the use of white space in her writing.

“Use the page like a designer uses white space,” said Meredith. “Let your words breathe and stand out.”

White space is an essential counterpart to focal points. Without white space, you’ll have a wall of impenetrable text. Researchers have found that a lack of white space (specifically the use of small margins and tight line spacing) can lower reading comprehension. If you need proof of this for yourself, just try reading a research paper in an academic journal—most will make your eyes bleed.

Creating white space starts with your sentences and paragraphs. Keep your paragraphs short—typically no more than three sentences.

And dare to use single-sentence paragraphs to break up the monotony.

Next, use bulleted lists whenever possible. These create blocks of lateral white space that give your writing a nice shape.

Finally, take time to develop the right message so that you can say less.

Improve Your Emails with White Space

White space is especially important in emails, which is where you’ll probably conduct the majority of your writing. White space makes emails more clear, focused, and effective.

In my opinion, no one writes a more clear and effective email than Trish Bertuzzi. Trish is the author of The Sales Development Playbook. She’s mastered the art of writing sales emails that convert. White space is a fundamental element of her success.

Trish is a proponent of short emails that take the shape of a capital F.

The first paragraph is the longest, and they get shorter and shorter down the email. This pattern creates a natural “funnel” design—a clear direction for the reader.

Here’s an example of a sales email I used when building WeContent, my content marketing agency:

Hey Lauren,

I really liked [Company]’s blog post on switching big data platforms from Amazon AWS to Snowflake. But I noticed it’s the only article you’ve written this quarter.

Did you know companies that publish more than one blog post per week see a 10X the return on their content marketing efforts?

We help companies like [Company] publish more content for a flat fee.

If interested, let’s talk. Here’s my calendar link.

Cheers,

Ben Putano

Notice this message has more white space around the call-t0-action at the end of the email. My goal is to funnel attention to the calendar link. This email performed very well for me (and led to the training debacle I shared in Chapter 4).

4. Design for Clarity

Chris Do’s biggest pet peeve when critiquing design: Legibility!

Amateur designers often sacrifice readability for style. This type of design serves no one but the designer. “Legibility should supersede every other consideration,” said Chris.

For writers, this obviously means to avoid illegible fonts. But it’s also a reminder to prioritize clarity over style. And as we’ve seen, clarity is more than the words you choose—it’s about giving your reader a clear direction through good design. Never assume your words will be read, even when writing to a captive audience like your employees. Your reader’s attention is always earned.

Design your writing to be clear, interesting, and easy to read. Then watch your impact and influence soar.