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You just watched me edit and create styles in Word and apply those styles to a document in order to create a beautiful CRAPful document. Now it’s your turn.

In your group, briefly introduce yourselves and then do the following. As with the Canva example, you’ll probably want to assign one person in your group as the “driver” and have them use Word while the rest of you discuss and give suggestions.

  1. Download this Word file: ugly-document.docx

  2. Assign paragraph styles to all the text in the document. You can use existing ones like “Heading 1” and “Normal”, or you can create new ones.

  3. Go through the principles of CRAP as a checklist and make sure the document is well designed. The poster you made previously was designed to be more colorful and graphic. This is a (fictional) policy memo, so fancy colorful graphics are likely less appropriate. Here are the questions from the previous activities:

    • Evaluate the design’s contrast in typography, colors, graphic elements (like logos, images, etc.), and other parts of the design. What works? What doesn’t work? What might you tweak to improve the contrast?
    • Evaluate the design’s repetition. Which design elements are repeated? Which aren’t? Which should be? Which shouldn’t be? What might you tweak to improve the repetition?
    • Evaluate the design’s alignment. Draw lines on the page (or imagine them, since you’re on a computer) and count how many different alignments there are. What works? What doesn’t? What might you tweak to improve the alignment?
    • Evaluate the design’s proximity. Are related items groups appropriately? Is there a clear visual hierarchy that the reader can easily follow to understand the message of the design? What works? What doesn’t? What might you tweak to improve the proximity?
    • Evaluate combinations of CRAP principles. Is there repetition and contrast in alignment, for instance?
       

At the end, you’ll have a chance to share your group’s design with the workshop. I encourage you to do so!