I love good-looking design. I also love it when it does something.

There is a type of content that looks great in a portfolio and disappears in a feed. Nice colours, nice fonts, a tidy grid, and no reason to stop scrolling. Pretty is the starting point. It is not the plan.

What design is for

On social media, design has three jobs:

1. Stop the thumb. Contrast, scale or an unexpected crop makes someone pause for a second.

2. Show what matters first. The viewer should know what to look at first, second and third.

3. Make the message easy. The headline should land before the viewer has decided whether to care.

If a design does not help with at least one of those, it is decoration.

Hierarchy is the whole game

Most weak posts have the same problem: everything is the same loudness. A headline, a subtitle, a badge, a logo, a date and a button, all competing.

Try this instead:

• One dominant element. Usually the headline, sometimes an image.

• One supporting element. A short line that adds context.

• One small piece of metadata. Logo, handle or date, kept quiet.

Everything else is a candidate for deletion.

Consistency is not repetition

A recognisable visual system does not mean the same layout every day. It means the same colours, type and rules, with layouts that change so the feed stays interesting.

Think of it as a vocabulary, not a template. You can say different things with the same words.

A quick check before you publish

• Can I tell what this is about in two seconds?

• Is there a clear first, second and third thing to look at?

• Would it still make sense without the logo?

• Is the text readable on a phone, not just on a monitor?

If the answer to any of those is no, the post is not ready yet, however pretty it is.