Tab Leaders

Does designing a table of contents drive you dotty? Next time, remember to say “take me to your tab leader.” Learning how to use your application’s automated tab leader function is a great way to save time and keep your layouts looking professional, down to the last detail.

Strizver, Ilene. Upper and lowercase Magazine (2007). Articles>Document Design>Typography>Adobe InDesign

Finessing Typographic Details: Positioning Punctuation

Are your characters depressed? When punctuation marks are positioned next to ALL CAPS, it can leave them looking a little low. Even making small adjustments in a character’s position will create greater visual balance and give your layout a “lift,” especially in display sizes.

Strizver, Ilene. Upper and lowercase Magazine (2007). Articles>Document Design>Typography

Yesterday and Today: Remembering the Old Waxing Layout Process

I think of those earlier processes and how they assist my work. Currently, I have a hand-created layout in my portfolio to teach that I understand the printing process from a historical point of view. I am aware of the tight deadlines, as the printer has a lot to do to get my final product accomplished. And worse comes to worse, if my layout program fails, I know how to create a dummy page by hand.

Cobb, Monique. Carolina Communique (2008). Articles>Document Design>History

Why Designers Fail: The Report

Last week I announced a study on why designers fail - exploring the reasons why designers, and people who work with designers, believe designers don’t achieve the results they desire. I presented the results as UIE 13 last week, and as promised here is a summary. Prize winners will be announced soon. Many top reasons for failure are not typically considered design issues, such as collaboration skills, persuasion skills, and receiving critical feedback.

Berkun, Scott. ScottBerkun.com (2008). Articles>Document Design>Assessment

Think Graphic Design Doesn't Matter?

The goal of a graphic designer — in almost every case — is to make things clear and eliminate as much ambiguity as possible. Clarity and ease of use should be the mantra.

Reynolds, Garr. Presentation Zen (2008). Design>Document Design>Usability

Has Anyone Used Your Product

Before you release a product, have some people use it. From these "test users" get solutions to problems, tips and knowledge that would help your real-life Users. Put that information in your User Documentation, and on your product support website.

Great Technical Writing (2008). Articles>Documentation>Technical Writing>User Centered Design

How to Match Type Size to Readership

The appropriate type size for a publication depends on many factors but there are some general type size guidelines to follow to insure readability for the main audience of your publication. These are not hard-and-fast rules. The more you know about your readership, the better type size choices you will make.

Bear, Jacci Howard. About.com. Articles>Document Design>Typography

Five Simple Steps to Designing Grid Systems: Subdividing Ratios

Ratios are at the core of any well-designed grid system. Sometimes those ratios are rational, such as 1:2 or 2:3, others are irrational such as the 1:1.414 (the proportion of A4). This first part is about how to combine those ratios to create simple, balanced grids which in turn will help you create harmonious compositions.

Boulton, Mark. Mark Boulton (2007). Articles>Document Design>Methods

Five Simple Steps to Designing Grid Systems:

Aesthetics can be measured and more importantly can be constructed. If you want something to be aesthetically pleasing there are steps you can take to make sure it is going in the right direction. Now I'm not saying that 'follow these rules and you will create something beautiful'. What I am saying is that by following a few of these guidelines can go some way into creating something compositionally balanced, which will inherently be more aesthetically pleasing.

Boulton, Mark. Mark Boulton (2007). Articles>Document Design>Graphic Design>Methods

Five Simple Steps to Designing Grid Systems: Grid Systems for Web Design, Part 1

Designing grid systems for print is considerably more straight forward than designing grid systems for the web. First off,in print, the designer has a fixed media size - the paper size (or packaging, poster, whatever). Let's say a print designer has designed a magazine. The reader of this magazine can't suddenly increase the font size if they find it difficult to read - well they just move it closer to their eyes I guess. This is just one consideration, there are more but I'm sure you get the point.

Boulton, Mark. Mark Boulton (2007). Articles>Web Design>Document Design>Methods

Five Simple Steps to Designing Grid Systems: Grid Systems for Web Design, Part 2

Fixed width grid design for the web. What is it, how do we do it and how do we implement it? For the purposes of this article, I'm going to be focussing on the theory of creating the grid rather than the implementation. I did mention in the last series that I would cover implementation using CSS, well I'm not going to. There are just so many resources and books available telling you how to create the CSS layouts you need—I'll touch on it, but I won't be going into too much detail.

Boulton, Mark. Mark Boulton (2007). Articles>Web Design>Document Design>Methods

Five Simple Steps to Designing Grid Systems: Grid Systems for Web Design, Part 3

Flexible vs Fixed. Which one to choose? Why choose one over the other? Well you won't find the answers to those questions here. What I'm aiming to do with this article is to investigate how the theory of grid design can be applied to a flexible web page.

Boulton, Mark. Mark Boulton (2007). Articles>Web Design>Document Design>Methods

Five Simple Steps to Better Typography: Measure the Measure

There is an optimum width for a Measure and that is defined by the amount of characters are in the line. A general good rule of thumb is 2-3 alphabets in length, or 52-78 characters (including spaces). This is for legibility purposes. Keep your Measure within these guidelines and you should have no problem with legibility. Please note that this figure will vary widely with research, this is just the figure I use and it seems to work well as a generally rule of thumb.

Boulton, Mark. Mark Boulton (2007). Articles>Document Design>Typography

Five Simple Steps to Better Typography: Hanging Punctuation

Hanging punctuation is an area of typographic design which has suffered at the hands of certain software products. It's a term which refers to glyph positioning to create the illusion of a uniform edge of text. It's most commonly used for pull-quotes, but I feel the most neglected is that of bulleted lists.

Boulton, Mark. Mark Boulton (2007). Articles>Document Design>Typography

Feeling Your Way Around Grids

During art college I was subjected to a lecture on the Golden Section (who remembers that lecture, come on hands up?), that ambiguous set of rectangles that is requisite art school discussion. During this lecture I was shown slide after slide of seemingly tenuous links between paintings and sculptures, and this set of rectangles. My lecturer at the time seemed as equally uninterested, droning along in self-imposed boredom. What he failed to convey at the time, has taken me over 15 years to even begin to understand. So what is the importance of these boring rectangles and how do they relate to design?

Boulton, Mark. Mark Boulton (2005). Articles>Document Design>Methods

Classic Computer Manuals from Apple and IBM

Apple's first user manual was largely the creation of Ronald Wayne, Apple's third founder, recruited from Atari by Steve Jobs for a 10 percent stake in the new company. Wayne not only wrote the entire 10-page booklet, he also drew the intricate cover logo depicting Isaac Newton beneath an apple tree.

Honan, Mathew. Wired (2008). Design>Documentation>Technical Illustration>History

Using a “Strawman” for Page Layout Design

Designing the page layouts for a new or redesigned intranet can be complex. One of the most difficult aspects is creating the first layout. Starting with an empty screen, you need to determine what will go on each page and where it will go. Using a strawman design - a design that is created with the intent of discarding it - can help to overcome many of the difficulties in the design process.

Spencer, Donna. Step Two (2004). Articles>Web Design>Document Design

Visible Narratives: Understanding Visual Organization

Visual communication can be thought of as two intertwined parts: personality, or look and feel, and visual organization. The personality of a presentation is what provides the emotional impact —your instinctual response to what you see. Creating an appropriate personality requires the use of colors, type treatments, images, shapes, patterns, and more, to “say” the right thing to your audience. This article, however, focuses on the other side of the visual communication coin: visual organization.

Wroblewski, Luke. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Articles>Web Design>Document Design>Visual Rhetoric

Web Site Layout

It appears that about one out of five Web sites (only 20%) currently are designed using a "Fluid" layout. Unfortunately, the layout most preferred by users, the "Fluid" layout, is the one implemented least often by designers.

Bailey, Robert. Human Factors International (2001). Articles>Web Design>Document Design

Does Design Matter in Comparison to Content?

Few people have ever commented about my blog’s design at all. The same goes with the music intros for my podcasts. I can change the music each time, and no one ever responds. In contrast, if a post has good content, I see a steady stream of comments. My experience leads me to conclude that content is about 90% important, and design is 10% important.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2008). Articles>Document Design>Visual Rhetoric>Writing

How to Overcome Three Common Localization Challenges

The localization of information for regional markets and audiences is increasingly important for companies of all sizes. It’s required to more effectively engage customers, maximize revenue, and maintain global brand recognition. In this issue we focus on three common challenges found in early-stage localization projects and how to overcome them. We introduce approaches to address these challenges cost-efficiently.

Duhl, Joshua. Dynamic Publisher, The (2008). Articles>Document Design>Localization

What is Dynamic Publishing?

We define dynamic publishing as: The automated assembly of customized documents with graphic-rich layouts for multiple mediums, including print, the Web, mobile and electronic devices. Dynamic publishing allows organizations to deliver accurate, relevant, and high-fidelity communications across multiple types of media faster and at a lower cost.

Duhl, Joshua. Dynamic Publisher, The (2008). Articles>Document Design>Personalization>XML

IDC Identifies Trends Contributing to Dynamic Publishing

IDC, a global information technology market research firm, identified a couple of trends related to and influencing dynamic publishing. These include the growth in internet users (and where they get their content), and where organizations will publish content over the next two years.

Dynamic Publisher, The (2008). Articles>Document Design>Personalization>XML

Information Mapping

Information Mapping is a proprietary method for the analysis, organisation, and presentation of information. It is based on the needs of the users and their purpose in using the documentation. Information Mapping has three parts: analysis, organisation, presentation.

Unwalla, Mike. TechScribe (2007). Articles>Documentation>Information Design>Standards

If It’s Not Easy to Use, It’s Not Used

Debates about Microsoft Word vs. Adobe Framemaker appear with regular frequency on the tech-writing mailing lists I am subscribed to. Everyone agrees Frame is an awesome publishing tool. Yet, everyone keeps cribbing about it. So, why does a bright bunch of people who are masters at figuring out stuff, otherwise known as tech-writers, only hesitatingly agree Frame is “kind of great”? I think it’s mostly because Frame is so difficult to use.

Info Developer (2008). Articles>Document Design>Software>Usability