Five principles of document design
- 1. 5 Principles
- 2. 1) Alignment Related items should line up to aid in overall coherence.
- 3. Bad Alignment Makes Documents Difficult to Read
- 5. 2) Consistency Ensure that each section of the document is visually consistent with other sections. Examples include: 1. Switching font style or size, which can make a document look awkward for readers Switching from bulleted lists to numbered lists without a reason And inconsistent spacing or indenting
- 7. 3) Proximity The principle of proximity is fairly simple; it dictates that related items should be visually arranged together
- 8. 4) Contrast Using different font sizes or styles can help distinguish between elements in a document that are meant to be distinct from each other. Examples include: Bolded or Underlined Subheads Use of italics for lists or titles Even things like bullets are used partly for contrast
- 10. 5) White Space Everywhere there is not a text or visual constitutes white space. White space helps to separate your text into disparate, distinguishable parts. White space also helps to emphasize key points/parts of your document
Editor's Notes
- #2: This presentation focuses on five underlying principles that guide writers who make good decisions when designing their document. While these principles are all touched on in your reading, they are not necessarily emphased.
- #3: The first principle is alignment. Quite simply, when things are aligned, they are easier to see. As a culture, we are constantly organizing things through the principle of alignment. Likewise, when documents are aligned, they make more sense to the reader.
- #4: As you can see, however, good alignment doesn’t mean everything is in one line. Aligning related items means using different horizontal planes to help the reader mentally sort the document.
- #5: In this new design, the document is much easier to comprehend, in part because there are three levels of alignment. The introductory sentence is on the first level, each step is on a second horizontal level, and the bulleted lists are on a third level.
- #6: When writers are taking from multiple sources and from different mediums (such as the internet, pdf files, word files, and emailed documents) and putting them all together in one document, it’s easy to create an inconsistently designed document without intending to. However, different fonts, inconsistent spacing, and using too many different design elements are off-putting for readers.
- #7: Here’s a section of my resume where I talk about my teaching experience. Notice that all the information is presented consistently, in the same area of the document. The date, the school, and the job title are all spaced the same, with the same font, size, bolding, and so on.
- #8: The third principle is proximity. When you write any document, you already attempt to organize through proximity. The basic concept behind paragraph structure relies on our understanding that sentences on a similar subject should be grouped together. However, good writers also use proximity when considering the visual arrangement.
- #9: One of the key purposes of good document design is to help emphasize the parts of a document that you want readers to see the most, or see first. Like alignment, the principle of contrast can help do that.
- #10: This document uses numbered lists, bolding, and spacing to emphasize the contrast between different parts of the document. In particular, the bolding of particular phrases is meant to draw the reader’s eye to particular parts of each step.
- #11: The last principle of document design that I’m going to talk about, white space, is one that goes against many of the formatting principles from your earlier classes. Some of the classic formatting requirements in academic papers (double-spacing, 1 inch margins, and so on) will make business and technical writing documents drab and hard to read. Therefore, you will have to rethink the way you utilize the white space in your documents to avoid falling into this trap.
- #12: One of the key things to remember with white space is that it can serve to emphasize or deemphasize certain aspects of your document. It’s a way of providing contrast and making certain elements stand out, as well as making your document more comprehendible overall.