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The Tools: Information Design ENG 260 Business And Professional Writing Medaille College - Fall 2009 this page rhetorical analysis | document design | visual design | file formats other Tools pages text | graphics | data | print documents web | style sheets | audio | presentation slides | video

Rhetorical Analysis

What is your report's audience, purpose, and likely usage?

career opportunities for professional writers

job ads: Technical Writer, MTC Software, Lockport, NY USA

Working closely with both the Product Development and Support Departments, you will take responsibility for writing and editing technical documentation for MTC Software products. As you master the use of our software, you must individually develop and update online HTML Help, Product Training Documentation, Sales Promotional Materials, website and video clip media that is well written, presented, and communicates efficiently to the end-user. When creating, updating, and enhancing the documentation, the Technical Writer will adhere to format, content, and style guidelines, giving consideration to usability and ensuring accuracy, consistency, and quality.

How much do these jobs pay? Learn more at Salary.com

Document Design

DocSymmetry.com's A Visual Guide to Document Design and Layout

Bastoky Design's Fundamentals of Document Design

arranging text, graphics, and images to engage (attractive) as well as inform (accessible) the reader

Document Parts

Body text - typography

fonts create interest and organization.

serif, sans serif

text, headings, captions, header/footer

accent, emphasis - relative size, relative weight, font style

Headings and Subheadings

break up sections of text

organize the content

small chunks of text are easier to read than long stretches of unbroken text

typography and position, size and relative size (to body text and to each other)

Lists 

numbered or lettered implies order

bulleted

Tables

compared lists

headers and captions

titled above; roman numerals -- ex: Table I: Year-by-Year Batting Averages

comparable numbers right or left justified; non-comparable items centered

Graphics

Informational graphics

figures: charts, pictures, etc.; their numbering (Arabic), titling (below), and captions -- ex: Figure 1: Pie Chart of Expenditures

call-outs: key sentences "called out" of the text, that is, enlarged, surrounded by colored box; font often changed

Decorative graphics

bars and banners

buttons and bullets

Structural / wayfinding text and graphics

running headers/footers

spacers, white space, rules (vertical and horizontal lines)

Front / back

Front matter

title page, copyright, abstract/summary, forward

Back matter

references, index, appendices

Notes

Parenthetical -- in the text

Footnotes -- at the bottom of each page

Endnotes -- at the end of the document

Sources and citations -- MBA, APA, Chicago, and other style manuals; links

Principles of Document Design

Attractiveness and Accessibility

Is it attractive to look at? How easy is it to find information in it?

These two umbrella principles cover everything below. If you have options, ask, Which looks better? Which makes it easier to find information?

Readability and Contrast

density -- how much information per square unit -- loose and relaxed <--> crowded and tense

organized, easy to read and aesthetically pleasing

Elements: background, text, headings, white space, graphics (decorative and navigational), lists, tables, graphs/charts, boxes (call-outs), images

Attributes: size, shape, color, position

Contrast draws your eye into the page, guides your eyes around the page, and creates a hierarchy for your information

Consistency and Repetition

patterns unify a document by maintaining and repeating the same design element attributes within a document.

consistency unifies the document because it makes the pages look the same, predictable, doesn't draw attention to itself. Too many different design patterns can look amateurish and be hard to read.

a consistent design pattern pulls all the parts of the document together which ultimately leads to clear communication.

Positioning and Alignment

lines of text, paragraphs and images

left, right, center, full justified

creates order and looks more professional

Relative Emphasis

call attention to important words

make the page more interesting

bold, italic, underline, quotation marks, different font

all capitals IS PERCEIVED AS SHOUTING!

Paragraph Spacing and Indentation

either indent first lines of paragraphs - more traditional
or
don't indent but put extra space between the paragraphs - cleaner, more contemporary look

indent a whole paragraph

numbering systems

lists, bullets points

Visual Design

Elements and Principles

how the elements relate to each other -- how to decide

color

emitted light vs reflected light

primary colors: ink - CMYK vs light - RGB

depth of one pixel: 256 vs 16.8 million

RGB, HSV, HEX

background color, text color

fonts

Wikipedia's Typeface

a coordinated set of glyphs designed with stylistic unity. A typeface usually comprises an alphabet of letters, numerals, and punctuation marks; it may also include ideograms and symbols, or consist entirely of them, for example, mathematical or map-making symbols. The term typeface is typically conflated with font, which had distinct meanings before the advent of desktop publishing. These terms are now effectively synonymous when discussing digital typography.

When type was set with metal, font came in trays. Now, they are computer files containing scalable outline letterforms.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) - The not-for-profit organization at MIT led by Tim Berner-Lee that develops interoperable technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web to its full potential.

units of measurement

height is measure by "point", abbreviated pt. How tall is the tallest glyph?

With the advent of desk-top publishing point and the dominance of John Warnock's Adobe, a point is defined as 1/72 of the anglo-saxon compromise inch of 1959 (25.4 mm). It is approximately 0.0139 inch or 0.3528 mm. Twelve points make up a pica, and six picas make an inch.

width is measure by "em" or pixel, abbreviated em and px -- how wide is each glyph?

download fonts

dafont.com

fonts.com

Font Freak

Boxes

W3C's Box model

ascii text options

File Formats

the table below simplifies some of the complexities and nuances to focus on what we will use for this course. For example, it lists only raster image extensions (.jpg, .gif) and omits vector images (.png, .wmf)

more complete list of file extensions - alphabetical | by file format

style sheets - specify the following for your .txt file

text, headings, lists (bullets), placeholders for tables, graphs/charts, boxes, images

learn more on the case page - ASCII text report

How will these reports be evaluated?