Designing Readable Documents

The following rules of thumb concerning page layout make documents easier to read:

• As with HTML source code, use whitespace and indenting to convey the document structure and hierarchy. This includes using whitespace to the top, right, bottom, and left of text.
• Use all appropriate document features to orient the reader. Things such as headings, cover pages, titles, running heads/footers, tables of contents, and page numbers are invaluable signposts to your reader, particularly in large documents. Employ these features critically, however: a five-page report, for example, doesn't realistically need a table of contents.
• Take advantage of cultural and contextual expectations. For instance, English-speaking audiences read from upper-left to lower-right; therefore don't defy their expectations by putting important visual information areas that defy that ordering.
• Think strategically about the ordering of information on the page. Think about how the audience's eye will likely scan the page... what is the most prominent feature of the page? Visually, where will they start and where will they end? Now, in the course of this visual journey across the page, are the reader's questions answered for them in the order in which they are likely to be asked in their mind?
• Don't use something when nothing would suffice. For instance, avoid the impulse to use heavy-handed visual features such as lines and boxes, when perhaps whitespace or alignment would be more effective.
• Establish visual unity. Establishing a thoroughly consistent visual look to a document helps greatly to establish its status as a single coherent, document.