Can Bad Design Hurt You?

A few years ago the internet was certainly buzzing about the Gaff on ABC at the Miss Universe Pagent.

Whether or not you believe the Miss Universe flub by Steve Harvey was hilarious or tragic (twitter certainly believes the former), one thing is for sure, a much better design could have saved a lot of heartache.

We break it down below.
Welcome to the silliest and most sloppily arranged piece if design to hit a multi-million dollar, overproduced, international beauty pagent to date.

The Card

This is like showing up in flip-flops to the Oscars. And with months in the making, and thousands of hours worth of prep time, how did this part get overlooked?

There isn't any logical order to this. Sizing, placement, and organizing is all over the place. Why is “Miss Universe” all the way to the right, but “Philippines” is centered below it? The actual winner, compositionally speaking, was essentially just cast off to the side. It looks like a footnote. And even though this document was created so that the names could be added later, they could have at least made the letters bigger. Microsoft Word can certainly adjust font sizes.

Just 15 Minutes of design

First, I’ve updated the brand to match. Just because this is simple and utilitarian doesn’t mean it can’t match the rest of the show. After that, I tackled the hierarchy. Now our "2015 Miss Universe” is now way more obvious. I’ve even managed to leave places to add the winner labels.

Maybe every elimination card couldn’t be this neat and pretty. But this is the main one. The Finale. This mistake isn’t Steve Harvey’s fault. The culprit here is, once again, bad design.

Note that everything is easier to read and follow. Our elimination card is legible, clean, and focused. By using size and color, we’ve made this document a lot more easy to understand.