Turn Your Medium Blog into a Design Masterpiece

With these 4 simple design hacks

Take your Medium blog from this:

Boring blog post with no images or interesting formatting

… to this:

Interesting blog post with images and designed formatting

… using Unsplash images, Canva graphics, Medium formatting, and design hierarchy rules.

Medium Blog Formatting

Medium has some pretty awesome features to make your blog posts stand out. Here are a few ways to use Medium’s features in your blog posts:

H1: For all of your main points, highlight them and use the large “T” so they head the section.

H2: For all subheaders, highlight them and use the small “T”.

Screenshot from my blog post

Images: Inserting images has never been easier. When you enter a new line, hit the “+” sign and select “🔍” to search and insert an image from Unsplash.

Paragraph Break: Split your paragraphs or sections up using the line tool. Hit the “+” sign and select “ — — ” to add a line break. This gives more space between text.

Hierarchy Rules

In designer speak, when we talk about hierarchy, it means that the elements on a page have an order so that the eye moves comfortably down the page.

Here’s an example of poor hierarchy:

Screenshot from my blog post

The alternating sizes and weights of the text make it flow less easily as you read down the page.

This is the same text with a good hierarchy:

Screenshot from my blog post

See how the eye travels easily down the page in the second screenshot? It’s because the content has a hierarchy, so it does the hard work for your eyes.

Canva Graphics

A lesser-known tip that I haven’t seen anyone else suggest on Medium is to use Canva graphics to spruce up your blog posts.

See the pretty paragraph breaker I used above? I got that from Canva.

You just create a new design and select “Custom Size” at 1200w X 100h pixels to create a long skinny canvas. Then search “line” under “Elements” on the left, filtering it to “graphics”.

Screenshot of Canva dashboard

Screenshot of open Canva project

Once you’ve chosen your paragraph breaker, go to Share > Download > Transparent Background > Download.

GIF of saving Canva project

You can even get creative and use GIFs in your design, like this:

Keep Your Audience Engaged

Most readers will skim pages, so the more visually engaging you make your blog post, the longer they’ll stick around. Use Medium’s in-built editing features, Unsplash images, good hierarchy, and Canva graphics to make the best out of your blog posts.

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