Re: document design: I don't know what I don't know

[quills -at- airmail -dot- net]

There are several things to look at in designing documents.

1. Analysis of the Audience,
2. Determination of the document's purpose.
3. Delivery method, and the advantages and disadvantages of each method.
4. Needs of the business unit.
5. Amount of information to present.
6. Amount and frequency of updates.
7. Method of updates.
8. Types of information to present.

When you can answer all of these you can begin to design a document.

Fonts and families are more the details of document design. As are the 
more technical aspects such as layout, organization of information, 
document structure, and document navigation.

Fonts and typefaces are important for readability and to satisfy our 
creative urges. Ok, mostly it's for readability.

Then comes layout, how the page is to look, sizes of the various 
headings, and other elements from normal text to lists, callouts, 
captions, and other titles.

I separate document design from other parts as the media used for 
delivery. This includes considerations of delivery method (paper, PDF, 
ebook, HTML, DITA, XML, etc.) Also included in this are transformations 
from the writing medium to the delivery media. You may write it in 
FrameMaker but deliver it on paper, PDF, or HTML. If you use a 
structured language like XML, are you going to use Docbook, your own DTD 
or schema, or DITA.

Organization of information determines the style of writing, as well as 
what type of document: brochure, quick reference card, pamphlet, user 
guide, navigation aide, system manual, or multi-volume book.

Document structure includes how you put the information together, as a 
chapters, articles, discrete topics (DITA), or something else. This also 
leads into document navigation. Are you going to need a table of 
contents, hypertext links, indices, or other navigation aids that you 
must construct.

Scott
Becca wrote: