Discover how print and digital clinical study materials, developed with clarity, white space, and purpose, improve participant understanding and engagement. White space refers to the empty area around print and design text and graphic elements.<\/p>\n
Long ago, in a different industry, I was part of a company\u2019s creative team that wrote and designed ads that ran in the monthly trade magazines. When it came time for leadership to approve the latest ad, I knew one of the VPs would be resistant.<\/p>\n
Invariably, he would run his index finger across the white space in the ad and ask, \u201cAre we missing an opportunity here?\u201d In other words, we\u2019re paying for a page, so let\u2019s fill it with text.<\/p>\n
I was not unsympathetic. Budgets are real, and advertising isn\u2019t cheap. Why tell potential customers about A, B, and C when there\u2019s room to add D, E, and F? Fortunately, the company president understood the beauty and appeal of the design and knew it would stand out among the noise in all the pages around it. Predictably, he overruled the VP.<\/p>\n
The idea I want to pass along here is this: Breathing room promotes breathing. And in patient materials, breathing room promotes comprehension, confidence, and action. White space is a vital strategic tool for enhancing readability, creating visual balance, minimizing user overwhelm, and directing focus.<\/p>\n
Every patient or participant material has one job: to be understood. When it takes on more, comprehension drops, and the piece loses the inviting quality that makes someone want to pick it up.<\/p>\n
At Imperial, we create numerous digital and print clinical study materials for participants across the globe, and the trifold brochure remains a reliable staple. It remains a classic tool because it\u2019s familiar, portable, and easy to navigate.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s human nature to see every piece\u2019s potential to do more, and the trifold brochure is a perfect example. During the writing process, we sometimes watch the word count swell into a four\u2011panel brochure and sometimes even a booklet. The writing process transformed it from a clinical study introduction into a mini ICF.<\/p>\n
When that happens, the material stops being a recruitment tool and becomes cumbersome, with too much detail to garner interest. If you\u2019re inviting a potential participant to a study, your pieces should be inviting and easy to read.<\/p>\n
Key constraints to keep in mind:<\/p>\n
Keeping the main purpose of each material in mind can help prevent overstuffing it with unnecessary content.<\/p>\n
The most effective materials are the ones people will actually use, not the ones that say the most. No matter the medium, from brochures to websites to videos, focused word count and intentional design make a piece more inviting and easier for the audience to engage with.<\/p>\n
At Imperial, we start by defining the single job each material must do, and we design around that purpose while respecting the participant\u2019s experience. Our teams understand how literacy, design, translation, and real-world use intersect. It\u2019s how we turn digital and print clinical study materials into tools that work.<\/p>\n
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