How can you apply visual design principles to engineering communication?

1 Why visual design matters

Visual design is the process of arranging and presenting visual elements, such as text, images, colors, shapes, and layout, to convey a message or achieve a purpose. Visual design can influence how your audience perceives, understands, and remembers your engineering communication. It can also affect their level of interest, engagement, and trust. Therefore, visual design is not just a matter of aesthetics, but also of functionality and effectiveness.

2 How to apply visual design principles

Visual design principles can help you improve your engineering communication. Alignment, contrast, hierarchy, balance, and repetition are some of the most important ones. Align your visual elements to create order and consistency, and use contrast to highlight important information. Establish a hierarchy with headings, subheadings, body text, captions, and labels. Balance your elements for stability and symmetry, and use repetition to create unity and coherence. For example, you can use a grid to align your text, images, and other elements; a large font for headings; a dark color for text; and the same color scheme throughout your report.

3 How to avoid common visual design mistakes

Applying visual design principles can improve engineering communication, but there are some common mistakes that can undermine it. Clutter, caused by too many or too large visual elements, or not enough space between them, can make your engineering communication look messy and overwhelming. To avoid this, use only the essential visuals, reduce their size, and increase the white space around them. Inconsistency, resulting from different or conflicting visual elements like fonts, colors, styles, or formats, can make your engineering communication look unprofessional and unreliable. To avoid this, use a consistent visual style or template and follow the same conventions for fonts, colors, styles, and formats. Lastly, irrelevance occurs when visual elements don't match or support your message or purpose; this can make your engineering communication look distracting or inappropriate. To avoid this, use visuals that are relevant to your audience and context.

4 How to evaluate and improve your visual design

To evaluate and improve your visual design, it's important to ask yourself some questions. Does your design match the message and purpose? Is it suitable for the audience and context? Does it follow the visual design principles? Are there any common mistakes to avoid? Does it effectively convey the information? Additionally, you should seek feedback from others and use tools like surveys, usability tests, or analytics to measure and improve the design.

5 How to learn more about visual design

If you want to learn more about visual design, there are many resources and opportunities available for you. You can read books, articles, blogs, or guides on visual design. You can watch videos, podcasts, or webinars on visual design. You can take courses, workshops, or seminars on visual design. You can also join online or offline communities, networks, or groups on visual design. You can also practice and experiment with different visual design tools, software, or platforms.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?