Carnegie Mellon University

Document Design

Download PDF Handout: Document Design (Visual Hierarchy)

If you're designing a document and want to make it easier for your audience to read, you have several options. You could always cut down information, but that may be difficult (or impossible!) in some cases. You can use different fonts and stylistic elements, but you risk creating a distracting document.

It is effective to combine several strategies to draft the clearest document for your readers. These strategies include bolded or clearly delineated section headings, text boxes or callouts, and consistent textual and design patterns.

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