Giving Your Readers a Break

I remember the very first issue of WIRED magazine. We all thought it was cool that there was a magazine talking about this geeky stuff we were doing. It looked really different from anything else that was being published, and not all that design innovation was useful. There was a lot of hot pink type on lime green backgrounds, text superimposed on text, and other effects that got used a) because everyone was young and had good eyes, and b) because it looked good (sort of) on a computer screen. On paper, it was both attention-getting and completely unreadable.

I'm currently struggling through Tom Peters’ Re-imagine!. It's got large useful chunks, but it suffers terribly from the same disease. Random pieces of text are in red. Random stuff is in huge type. Ellipses are . . . used to . . . indicate . . . WTF exactly? Capital letters are used to express a kind of emotional spasm, without any seeming underlying logic. It's a little like a homework assignment written by a hyper bright 10-year-old with advanced ADD.

The typography and layout of the book are a writhing mass of attention-grabbers, with the result that the whole thing is impossible to read. You don't know where to put your focus. There's not a square inch to rest your eye. It would make an OK one-page flyer, but as a book it's brutally exhausting and doesn't, in the end, get its point across.

If you're communicating in writing, your best bet is to use words and sentences and paragraphs. Headers let the readers know This is a Pretty Big Idea. Sub-heads let the reader know This is a Subset of the Pretty Big Idea. I know that isn't as fun as splashing red graphics over the top of your text. I know it isn't as fun as squiggly lines (that look disturbingly like hairs, I keep trying to brush them out of the book) pointing to call-outs.

I know it's more fun to write a white-board than a book. But it isn't more fun to read one.

I may well be a big fuddy-duddy, although I'll note that I have read at least one blog post (which I wish I cound find again, like a fool I didn't bookmark it) pointing to the pages of Re-imagine! that one should actually read.

But let's just say, for the sake of argument, that you might not be as brilliant as Tom Peters. (And I agree that there is some brilliance there.) If that is the case, and if your communication strategy is to wave your arms around and shout “All Of This is important to everyone, gaaaaaah!” accompanied by graphics that shock and awe more than they inform, don’t be too surprised if your effectiveness approximately equals that of a homeless guy.

Edit: Laura pointed out in comments that this blog's default typeface is pretty darned small. Which is true. Annoyingly, it seems that the only way for me to change this if I use a predefined theme is to upgrade to a more expensive account so I can create a custom CSS sheet. Which I will, but in the mean time, I'm manually bumping up the font a little in each post. I hope this works better for folks!

Comments

[Laura]

I think I'd like your blog. But it is really hard to read with the font so tiny. I like writing, publishing in a blog and I agree that there should be ways for the seo types to do it without destroying everything in their path. My eyes are too tired to read much of your posts though.

[Andy Pels]

First, Laura, unless you're just kidding around about the font - subscribe to the blog with a reader like Google reader. Then it will be in a more standardized text. If you were kidding and making a point about design, I'm sorry I'm not cool enough to catch it.

As far as the point of the post - I am reading Blue Ocean Strategy right now and just that fact that the footnote numbers are so large is really distracting me. I don't think I could handle reading the Peters book you describe. I actually got that book on audible.com so I got to hear ol' Tom read it to me (an adventure in its own). And the bigger point resonates so well, though. Don't do it just to be different. Don't do it just because you can. Be different, but stay effective. I am the first to admit that I am not good at creating pleasing, innovative design, but I, like most, know it when I see it, and know when I see the opposite.

[Sonia Simone]

Laura, I do think you make a good point. (Andy has a great suggestion if you weren't kidding.) But the font is pretty small. Let me look at Typepad and see if they have a setting for that.

[Timothy Coote]

As much as I love the people at Tom Peters' blog and have the utmost respect for Tom Peters himself, the overdose of everything being stupendously important is tiring.

I have used some of Tom's Powerpoint slides and quotes in presentations before and find myself turning the volume down from the fire engine red texts on Batman purple backgrounds and taking off about five exclamation points at the end of every phrase to something which ends up still getting the point across but isn't screaming at my public. I think times have changed from the super-motivator eighties and nineties to something more conversational (I know the word is being kicked around a lot).

FWIW, I think your posts should be in an even smaller type face and to hell with conventionalism. If people go blind at least you will have been the last thing they read ;)

[Sonia Simone]

Ah ha ha, nice Tim.

[feefifoto]

I agree. All the noise of funky and colorful fonts interspersed with CAPITAL LETTERS!!! and all those exclamation points is so distracting that I pay more attention to the way it looks than what's being said. If you have something important to say then say it and let your message speak for itself.

[casino en ligne]

Parfois, des polices ou d'autres applications à faire une lettre n'est pas important.What important est le contenet de la lettre.