Design Principles

     Design is everything. You may think of technical writing without much design however, that is incorrect. Design is key to having success with technical writing. Understanding basic design principles is very important, since design is so broad you may be asked to create anything from a flyer to a menu. Some of the basic design principles include audience, purpose, style guides, writing style, layout, and content. As you have probably noticed audience has a lot to do with technical writing. If you remember my previous articles for the audience, use the acronym discussed. If you use the acronym you'll do just fine with this step. Next, we move on to purpose. Ask yourself what is the purpose of this document? Sometimes companies have proprietary language they want you to use so for the the step of style guide ensure any guide there is in place is followed. Next, writing style, some documents requires different styles and approaches to write them properly. Your writing should be formal and objective. Do not include any opinions while writing technical documents. Layout is also a key to remember this is truly where design comes into play. A document should be easily navigated and content should flow smoothly while reading. You should also include any warnings, cautions, or troubleshooting and have it stand out. Finally, we have content, your content should be clear, concise, and correct. You will know you have a successful document when the reader doesn't have to look for extra details. 

    Now that you understand the basics of design, we'll move on to the meat and potatoes of design, and graphics. Graphics are an important piece to inform your reader especially when creating technical documents. Have you heard of the saying "a picture speaks a thousand words" that is exactly what we will be trying to obtain with the graphics we include in the technical design? When creating graphics there are a few important things to note. We want to ensure the graphics increase the message we are trying to write. We also want to use graphics that support our case. While designing graphics we also want to make sure they are easy to use and understand. Below are some examples of good and bad graphic designs.

    Clearly, with the bottom flyer, it is extremely busy. It's very difficult to read and your eyes are jumping everywhere for any valuable information. The upper flyer is clear and easy on the eyes and describes its information clearly. While we create our future designs we want to ensure we are creating documents that are designed properly.