Lecture Business and administrative communication: Chapter 6 - Kitty O. Locker, Donna S. Kienzler

Chapter 6 - Designing documents. In this chapter, we will address the following questions: What document design is important and how to incorporate it into the writing process, the four levels of document design, and how they can help you critique documents, guidelines for document design, how to design brochures, how to design infographics, how to design web pages, how to do basic usability testing on your documents.

Chapter 6

Designing Documents

 LO 6-1 What document design is important and how to

incorporate it into the writing process

 LO 6-2 The four levels of document design, and how

they can help you critique documents

 LO 6-3 Guidelines for document design

 LO 6-4 How to design brochures

 LO 6-5 How to design infographics

 LO 6-6 How to design web pages

 LO 6-7 How to do basic usability testing on your

documents

 Saves time and money

 Reduces legal problems

 Builds goodwill

 Looks inviting, friendly,

easy to read

 Enhances credibility of

writer

 Think about design at each step

 As you plan, think about audience

 Skilled or busy?

 Read straight through or skip around?

 As you write, use lists, headings.

 Use visuals to convey numerical data clearly

 Get feedback from your audience

 As you revise, check the design guidelines

that follow

 Vary widely by audience, geographic

area, industry, or department

 Change over time

 Violating is risky

 Presents incorrect interpretations

 Signals author is unreliable or

unknowledgeable

 Intra—individual letters and words

 Inter—blocks of text

 Extra—graphics that go with the text

 Supra—entire document

1 Use white space

2 Use headings

3 Limit words in all capital letters

4 Use no more than two fonts per document

5 Justify margins selectively

6 Put key items at top left or bottom right

7 Use a grid unity

Use this process to create effective

brochures

1.Analyze your rhetorical situation

2.Draft the text

3.Select appropriate visuals

4.Create the design

5.Print the brochure

Use this process to create effective

infographics

1.Analyze your rhetorical situation

2.Research your topic

3.Find or create visuals

4.Draft the text

5.Put it all together

Use this process to create effective web pages

Attract and maintain attention

Create a usable homepage

Provide easy navigation

Increase accessibility

Follow conventions

 Watch someone use document to do a task

 Ask user to think aloud during task

 Interrupt at key points to find out what user

thinks

 Ask user to describe thought process

afterwards

 Ask user to put + and - signs in margins to