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Story

The Manager’s Inbox

It’s mid-July, and you’re supervising two college interns at your first job after graduation. They’ve both been analyzing customer feedback and just sent in their weekly reports. You open your inbox, grateful for their effort—but what you see instantly shapes your impression of them.

The first report looks like a leftover from freshman English: centered title, double-spaced paragraphs, no headings, no visual hierarchy. You scroll once, then twice, trying to find the main point. Then you open the second intern’s report. It’s clean, organized, and professional—strong headline, readable fonts, a pop of color, and a short chart that makes the data instantly clear.

Both reports contain the same information, but one earns attention, trust, and understanding. Good document design = attention + credibility + comprehension. The well-designed report caught your eye, signaled professionalism, and made its message easy to grasp. You think to yourself, “OK, this is the intern I want to bring on full time.” The takeaway? Good design is a powerful business asset.

Same words—different impression.

Main Idea

Format Shapes First Impressions

Good design helps your message get read, understood, and remembered. Your formatting speaks before your words do—so make it look as professional as it sounds.

Agenda

What You’ll Learn in This Chapter

• Structure your message with titles, headings, and hierarchy
• Design for readability using font, color, and emphasis
• Use layout and spacing to guide attention and reduce clutter

Reasons

Design Tools That Serve the Message

1. Structure with Titles and Headings

Build a Scannable Information Hierarchy

Readers don’t start by reading—they start by scanning. Titles and headings guide their eyes and show what matters most. Use the styles section of your word processor for easy formatting.

Usage	Description
Title	Your headline—specific, relevant, and strong.
Subtitle	Adds clarity or previews your key argument.
Headings	Divide major sections so readers can navigate easily.
Subheadings	Break long sections into smaller, meaningful parts.

Writing headings forces you to clarify your own logic—it’s a built-in structure check.

Use Parallel Structure

Headings at the same level should be grammatically and visually parallel.

Choose one grammatical pattern and stick to it—it builds rhythm and clarity.

Choose Between Talking and Topic Headings

Talking headings enable you to guide attention more effectively—but whichever style you choose, apply it consistently.

2. Design for Readability Using Font, Color, and Emphasis

Choose Fonts That Match Your Message

Fonts act as the “voice” of your document. Use them intentionally. Here's a snapshot of some basics:

Typeface	Voice
Georgia (italic)	Comfortable
Helvetica (bold)	Stable
Franklin Gothic	Objective
Century Gothic	Modern
Baskerville	Reliable

Use no more than two fonts in a document—usually one for headings and one for body text. Check your organization’s style guide or visit FontPair for well-matched combinations.

Apply Contrast and Color with Purpose

Size Matters

Usage	Font Size
Title	25–35 pt
Subtitle	Mid-size
Headings	14–16 pt
Subheadings	13–14 pt
Body Text	11–14 pt
Captions/credits	7–9 pt

Color is Powerful

Color is powerful, but use it sparingly in business. Limit yourself to 1–2colors per document. More than that and your carefully crafted message will give off circus vibes. If your organization has a color palette, be sure to use it exactly, matching the hex codes precisely. If not, try out a color palette creator like Coolors.co. Be sure to ensure high contrast for color-blind accessibility (use Coolors Contrast Checker).

Use Emphasis Wisely

A solid wall of gray text is discouraging. Guide your reader to key points and important ideas by using the formatting techniques below. Remember to format to guide attention, not to decorate. Be consistent and restrained with your approach. For instance bolding only key words is much more effective than bolding an entire sentence.

Remember that shades of gray are colors, too. Designers at Google have taught us that dark gray body text often looks more polished than pure black. Can you see the subtle differences in the examples below?

Your guide to skillful emphasis:

Bold highlights key ideas.

Italics emphasize nuance.

Color can signal categories.

🎉 Emoji can convey tone—but use only when appropriate.

🚫 Do NOT underline headings or words for emphasis—it indicates a hyperlink.

3. Use Layout and Spacing to Guide Attention

So we’ve covered some document design basics: Writing engaging titles and headings will establish a visible hierarchy and avoid the forbidding gray wall of text, your color choices will attract and guide attention, and your deliberate use of emphasis will enable your reader to scan your message quickly.

Finally, here is a checklist of five layout practices that will help your reader and give your document a professional air.

1. Use short lines and wide margins to help readers move through your document quickly. In digital or print formats, aim for 52–70 characters per line for optimal readability.
2. Set a 1.15 space between lines instead of single or double spacing. Researchers have determined that to be the most comfortable reading density for most humans.
3. Craft punchy paragraphs. Most people read the first sentence of a few paragraphs before deciding whether to spend time reading a document. Make sure yours count. This means you should keep paragraphs short, creating a break for each new idea or topic.
4. Don’t indent. Instead of indenting five spaces like you did in high school, hit a return and leave a blank line between paragraphs to give the reader some breathing room and sharpen the look of your document.
5. Align text and visuals LEFT with a consistent or grid alignment. Left-justified (“ragged-right”) is the easiest to read. Do not center-align headings or paragraphs—they’re harder to read and look like a formal invitation.

Design with AI

AI tools like Canva or Adobe Express can help you experiment with layouts, but don’t rely blindly on templates. When you try to fit your ideas into a design template that doesn’t accommodate them, you end up degrading your message. Learn to customize and modify templates to serve your ideas.

Beware the dangers of “premature polish”. If you drop your unfinished draft into a beautiful template, it may suddenly feel finished to you. Readers, however, will notice errors and inadequacies. Instead, wait until you’ve completely finalized your content before employing a design template or AI assistance.

Early generative AI tools are LLMs, designed to deal with text. The visual design capacities of AI are developing but often produce comically awful results. Don’t be too optimistic about what AI can do for you. Good design takes work and time, so allow plenty of room in your timeline for producing a polished document.