Book Spotlight #2: The Non-Designers Design Book
If you are involved in software development, you are probably responsible for creating and presenting documents and web pages on a regular basis. If you only ever get enthusiastic reviews on the layout and design of the documents you present, you don't need to read any further; you should probably write your own book about design. However, if like me, you happen to get the occasional odd stare or constructive criticism about how your work looks, then you should be interested in this book spotlight.
The subject of this spotlight is Robin Williams', The Non-Designers Design Book, subtitled "Design and Typographic Principles for the Visual Novice". This book is not geared towards the Internet or even really electronic documents in particular, but instead to the basics of arranging and coordinating text on a page.
In the first part of the book, Williams lays out 4 principles of page layout: Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity. When Williams heartily acknowledges that she has just presented the CRAP principles, she sets an informal and warm tone that is a pleasant surprise for a book boasting a 50 page section on type. With helpful exercises and effective visual examples, Williams ends up making the 4 principles seem obvious.
In the second part of the book, Williams focuses on type, or as I might call them, fonts. My biggest takeaway from this section was her insistence on a designer being bold ("don't be a wimp") in her use of fonts. She recommends and illustrates with examples how it looks better to combine typefaces that are very different, not very similar, on the same page.
"The Non-Designers Design Book" is not a book you can absorb with just one read. However, after the first read you will be able to look at your own work and point out some specific reasons why that document looks right and that one doesn't. So if you've ever been frustrated when your presentation ends up obscuring your content, then I highly recommend picking up a copy of Robin Williams' book.