A design that doesn't have any consideration for the alignment principle would feel rather like a jumble of puzzle pieces — confusing, overwhelming and without any clear takeaway. Alignment is also an important principle because it relates to others, including hierarchy, repetition, proximity and white space. Alignment helps us create the necessary structure for our information. Think about alignment as giving the reader subtle clues about how to consume your design. The human brain assumes elements aligned either horizontally or vertically are related. This is one of the clues we use when looking at visual content. If things are slightly out of alignment, we can become confused or even have the wrong takeaway after reading the material.