Worked example: Digital Poster Design: Online Safety

What this is

A secure Year 8 response: the planning table, the thumbnail that came before the poster, and the finished poster itself. Show the planning at the start if the class is stuck on headlines, but keep the finished poster back until pupils have drawn their own thumbnail — it is a strong design and they will copy it.

Step 1 — three headlines, then a choice

1. Be Safe Online — rejected: says nothing, could be about anything.

2. Protect Your Personal Credentials — rejected: a seven-year-old does not know “credentials”.

3. Keep Your Password Secret — chosen: four words, one instruction, every word is one a Year 3 pupil already uses.

Shows the rejected options and the reason for each. The headline is four words and pitched at the audience, not at the designer.

Step 2 — planning table

My topic	Keeping your password secret
My headline	Keep Your Password Secret (4 words)
Advice 1	Never tell anyone your password.
Advice 2	Use three words joined up, like BlueDragonCake.
Advice 3	Log out when you finish.
Call to action	Not sure? Tell a trusted adult.
My three colours, and which is the background	Dark navy background, yellow, white. The navy is the background because dark backgrounds with pale text stay readable even if the printer is low on toner.
One word I have deliberately avoided	“Credentials”. Also “authentication” and “secure” — none of them mean anything to a seven-year-old.

Every piece of advice is an instruction starting with a verb, and the colour choice is justified by how the poster will actually be printed. Advice 2 gives a worked example of a passphrase instead of just saying “make it strong”.

Step 3 — the thumbnail, drawn before building anything

Positions and relative sizes were decided before any lettering was drawn. The size order runs headline → advice → call to action → footer, which is the decision the fourth criterion asks for.

Step 4 — the finished poster

One headline of four words, three pieces of advice, one call to action in its own reversed-out box, and three colours only. It meets the first three criteria, and because the contrast is between dark navy and pale yellow or white it survives a black-and-white photocopy.

Step 5 — what the partner check changed

Check	Yes / No	What was fixed
I could read the headline from two metres	Yes	—
I could read the three pieces of advice	No, at first	Advice 2 was on one long line and ran off the edge. Split over two lines and the numbered circle moved down to sit between them.
Every word would be understood by a seven-year-old	No, at first	The call to action said “Report it to a responsible adult”. Changed to “Not sure? Tell a trusted adult.”
The call to action is obvious without being told	Yes	It is the only white block on the page, so the eye lands on it after the headline.
Text and background differ in darkness, not just colour	Yes	Checked by printing it in greyscale. Navy stays very dark, yellow and white stay very pale.

Two real changes were made because of the two-metre test, which is the fifth criterion. Saying what was wrong and what replaced it is worth more than a row of ticks.

Why this response is secure

The headline was chosen against two rejected alternatives, and the reason for rejection is about the audience’s reading age, not about taste.
Advice 2 gives a concrete passphrase example. “Use a strong password” would have told a seven-year-old nothing.
The thumbnail came first, and the finished poster follows it. The size hierarchy was a decision, not an accident.
Contrast is handled as a difference in darkness rather than in colour, so the poster still works photocopied and for a colour-blind reader.
The partner check produced two edits. A checking box with five ticks and no changes normally means the check was not really done.