We interact with design every single day, whether we realize it or not. Everything around us was created by someone with a specific purpose in mind. From the chairs we sit on to the apps we use on our phones, all of it went through some kind of design process at some point.
The thing is, that process doesn’t always lead to great results. Sometimes things come out looking a bit off, and sometimes they end up so over-the-top that they become completely unusable.
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If you’re not a designer, it can be tough to explain exactly why something feels wrong. You might look at a poster on the street and be able to read everything on it, but something about it still bugs you. You know it doesn’t look right, you just can’t quite put your finger on the problem.
Well, there are actually specific principles that separate good design from bad. Robin Williams breaks down four of them in his book “The Non-Designer’s Design Book,” and they’re surprisingly easy to understand. Once you learn what they are, you start noticing them pretty much everywhere.
The first one is called proximity. The idea is simple: things that belong together should be placed near each other. When related items are grouped closely, they naturally form a visual unit, which makes everything easier to process.
Think about a restaurant menu where all the information is scattered around the page with no clear grouping. Your eyes would jump all over trying to figure out what goes with what. When everything is grouped properly, you can scan through it without any confusion at all.
The next principle is alignment. Nothing on a page should feel like it was placed there randomly. Every element needs some kind of visual connection to the things around it. When items are properly aligned, even if they’re far apart, there’s an invisible line that ties them together and creates structure.
You’ve probably seen flyers or websites where the text and images seem to just be floating with no order at all. When everything lines up with intention, the whole piece instantly feels more put together.
Then there’s repetition. This one means using the same visual elements consistently throughout a piece, like the same colors and fonts. It creates unity and makes everything feel like it belongs to the same family.
Imagine walking through a building where every floor has completely different signage with its own fonts and color scheme. It would feel messy and disorienting. Consistent signage throughout the whole building makes navigation easy and gives the place a much more professional feel. It also tells people that the design was done with care and thought.
The last one is contrast. If two elements are supposed to be different from each other, they should be very different. Contrast is often what grabs your attention first and makes you actually want to look at something. It also helps organize information by making it clear what matters most.
Think about a remote control where every single button is the same size and color. You’d have to read the tiny label on each one just to find the volume. When the important buttons are bigger or a different color, you can find what you need instantly without even thinking about it.
