Today I want to talk to you about the most common design mistakes made by non-designers. I’m gonna tell you 15 of them.

1. Avoiding using words instead of visuals.

One, using words instead of visuals. One of the most common mistakes is that amateurs and non-designers use too many words, too much text in their design. This might be their slide, it might be their infographic presentation and so on.
So what you instead want to do is to stick with and just the essential elements. So reduce some amount of content and that with visual cues. That way the user can focus on what you try to communicate with them.

2. Poor readability.

Number 2 is . Now with poor readability, one of the other mistakes is too much text, too many lines of text and also the user is filling out their page.
If you look here at the bottom example, 50 to 60 characters per line is what you want to shoot for, think of it as approximately 2 or 3 tweets put together. And keep your paragraph very short.

3. Mismatching fonts.

Number 3 is fonts. Now I’m gonna be talking a lot about fonts, . I’m actually gonna be doing specific videos on those but one of the problems is that, there’s too many used and in this case, there are three different fonts that are applied and they really don’t with each other. Actually makes the design look busier and doesn’t look very professional.
What you do instead, one is to stick with 2 or 3 fonts maximum, instead if you need to do a variation, do a variation of the font. Maybe in italic or and that allows you to… Using different allows you to actually achieve and yet variation of your design.

4. Not choosing the right colors.

Number 4 is not choosing the right colors. Colors is a very big deal in design, be it through the color selection, the combination. In this case, if you look at the example, somebody gave, you know, a child 3 or 4 different color crayons and just basically had at it and that’s what it looks like. And that’s the problem with designers and amateurs is that they have a lot of fonts, they have a lot of colors and their disposal and they feel like they can just mix and match everything.
There’s actually a few to follow in terms of colors, what you really want to do is to you know, use colors that actually aid and of the content and that and don’t actually inundate you with it. And also you want to have the right amount of through the colors that you use.
So the example below you have 3 different colors and also if you look at it, there’s the orange, the gray with the white to actually have a nice balance together.

5. Lack of negative space.

5 is a lack of negative space. So in terms of negative space, I want you to think about your… Let’s see your living room. You have your TV and then you have your couch, you might have a coffee table. You have this empty space.
You don’t have every object everything. And so the same you know, principle in your designs. And in the example above, what the individual has done is to just completely that area with something. Free space, negative space is actually a great thing in the design. So in the example below what you see is free space, negative space and the concentrations in the middle.
One of the great examples is Google’s home page, you know. It’s about the search and so the that’s there is the search and so you don’t have to look around for it.

6. Place elements arbitrarily.

Number 6 is to place elements . Now not elements is a big deal as well in design. So if you look at the two examples, on the one above, there’s really no purpose and direction. Things are just . In the example below, you have kind of the content that is left justify and so there’s a certain order and a balance. That’s what you want to shoot for.

7. Failing to create contrast.

Failing to create contrast. So that’s another element that you want to concentrate on. It’s a mistake made often by non-designers. You have a light text, your over your . And if you look at the example below, what’s happening is you have a dark text or a white background. And so you have actually achieved a good .
So you want to basically use colors that are and . So in this case, if you look at it, you have a light gray, you have a navy blue and actually goes along with a bright orange.

8. Not scaling properly.

Number 8 is not scaling elements properly. And in this case, one of the mistakes that I see often non-designers and amateurs make is that they keep everything the same size. They actually don’t take advantage of these tools or the disposal to scale things. And when you scale things, you want to actually .
Larger elements are the or the focal points. So if you look at the work dramatic and the work effect, primarily the word dramatic is the first thing that you see. Through , you can actually and also achieve a certain with your audience.

9. Hard-to-read text.

Number 9 is hard to read text. So this actually kind of goes with the example that I mentioned before, another mistake is the contrast. Again, you have text, that’s kinda blue, the image it, very hard to read the text. And so that’s definitely no-no as actually one more common mistakes that I see often being made.
But if you look at the two examples and compare them together, on the one , we actually have a nice contrast. We have light text, white a darker image and so it’s very easy to actually read and on the text that’s been shown to you.

10. Inappropriate font combinations.

Just a few more to go. Number 10 is inappropriate font combinations. So if you look at the examples here, you have a rustic image and the you have a font and the colors look at it should be on the box of a barbie doll. And it doesn’t really with the image behind it. Now, look at this one. In the example here you have, the image is actually of the font. So the fonts and the image behind it, they’re in perfect harmony. That’s is where you want to always shoot for. Think about when you’re selecting fonts, think about the environment and what you’re trying to achieve. The message and also the that there’s gonna be on.

11. Inadequate space between lines.

Number 11 is inadequate space between lines. So this one again you know, the Problem With Leading, you have words “problem with” are stuck together and then you have the “leading”. Which you want to instead do is to you know, it’s okay to have but the line breaks should have a . In case you have a short paragraph and you have a . So there’s a little bit of separation between them and that’s an okay thing to do.

12. Using raster images.

Using raster images is number 12 and again this is a common one. So images in general you know, they’re big maps. And what that means is that there’s in them. If you take images and if you scale them up, it will become such as the example here. And it’s okay to scale them down but never scale them up. That’s a big tip I can provide you to the non-designers. And also you want to stick with using and text. So one of the good thing is, these days visual tools such as PowerPoint, Prezi, even our tool Visme, all the text, the shapes are actually . So you can stretch them and size them as big as you want and as small as you want and you will never lose the resolution. So you want to use it as much as possible and then when you do actually bring in images you know, try to avoid sizing them up.

13. Striving for complete symmetry.

Now number 13 is striving for complete symmetry, okay. Here’s the thing, when you’re creating content for digital and for print for someone, you don’t have to always have perfect symmetry. And you know, you’re not creating a car that needs to be aerodynamic or a plane, this is digital content and/or design. And it that case, you know, you wanted to be after the . You want to create . If you can achieve balance without making things , is perfectly okay.

14. Failing to communicate effectively.

Number 14 is failing to communicate effectively. So here’s the thing, you’re creating content for your audience, that's the whole purpose of it. So you want to always make sure that the content you’re creating, you don’t it and also you . And the example here, and this is actually a mistake that I believe designers and non-designers make. I’m guilty of it myself. What we do is we put too many objects and , and you’re basically trying to things. However what you really want to do is to minimize, use the minimal principle. In this case you have, text and you have a supporting, . And so together they have a nice balance, there’s a white space and everything just kind of fits and it is in harmony.

15. Not being consistent.

Last but not least is not being consistent. So is key. This is about contrast, use of colors and it all goes down as well into . And the example here, you’re looking at fonts, text. So you got good color and the use of the font. The text on the left is , on the right side it is actually you know, the color doesn’t balance with the rest.
What you instead want to do is you know, pick a font, pick a and stay and you know to create a sense of unity and with your design. So in the example below, you can see that the colors, the orientation, the use of the fonts – everything is balanced. And so it’s actually taking advantage of the number of the mistakes that I mentioned and it’s reversing those and so you achieve this nice clean design below it.
So those are the 15 design mistakes I want to talk to you about. There actually is more of them. We have a nice blog post that talks about 19, so there’s 4 more that I did notc over here. I’m gonna put the link below. Go ahead and take a look at it. And again I promise you, if you put the few of these into works, and it doesn’t matter what type of content you want to create. Perhaps it’s a presentation, it might be a word document, maybe it’s for print or maybe it’s for web, regardless, if you put these principles into works, they’re very easy to follow.
I promise you the quality of your design will be improved and again at the end of the day, you want to practice. Thank you. See you guys next time.