The Essentials of Technical Communication: Chapter 5

In this Chapter

This chapter discusses the principles of document design. Document design focuses on the formatting of a document rather than the content. The first section lists five basic principles of document design and explains each one. The next section explains how to create a visually effective page or screen. It focuses on the use of white-space to group information. The final section describes how to help readers locate information easily. The primary focus of this section is designing effective headers. All sections include several examples of correct and incorrect design.

Basics of Design

Before all else, you should know what decisions are available to you. You’ll often be limited by pre-defined templates and styles provided by your organization.  If you feel that the provided template is inadequate for the situation, you should contact the person responsible for the templates and make a case for your desired change. Changes should not be made arbitrarily to established templates. The design of your document should match the situation. Don’t make documents unnecessarily complex. For example, don’t add a table of contents to a document that is less than five pages. You should plan your design from the beginning of your composition process. Determining how readers will use the document will allow you to create an effective design. If you know what design you’ll use before you write, you can create the content to match it. The design will also be influenced by the medium of communication. On-screen communication will have different options and constraints than paper.

The document should reveal the design to the readers. This can be accomplished with a table of contents, headings, and even the layout itself. A reader should be able to understand your design and use it to find the information they need within the document. Consistency is very important. If the design is not consistent, the reader will not be able to locate specific information efficiently.

Page and Screen Design

The layout of the page or screen is vital to an effective document. The page should appear uncluttered and organized. White space is a very important tool for designing a page or screen.  Blank spaces can be used in the form of margins to frame information and make the page visually appealing. Spacing within the text can help to separate different sections to increase readability. Large areas of unbroken text can discourage readers and lead to skimming or skipping a section. The line length (number of words on a line) shouldn’t be very long or very short.  A ragged right margin is usually appropriate for informal documents or electronic documents. The ragged margin makes it easier to locate specific lines.

Easy to Locate Information

The frequent use of headings makes it much easier to locate specific information. Every page should have at least one heading so the reader doesn’t get lost. It is important to keep in mind that most readers are looking for specific information, rather than reading the document from start to finish.  You should write descriptive headings which use concrete language and include more than just nouns. The structure of the headings should be consistent. Heading should also be distinctive.  Distinctive headings use white-space and font to draw the reader’s attention. The size of a heading should correspond to its importance.  Numbered headings can be used which arrange the sections in levels, like an outline, to organize the document.  Finally, page numbers, headers, and footers can place information on each page to allow the reader to easily navigate the document.